Love Like Winter
by dreaZALA
Summary: Where Loki's initial goal had been to bring the human race to its feet, to prove himself a God, his failure at the hands of the Avengers has brought about a new goal. Revenge. But people who believe themselves above others are doomed to fail. Will he fail from his own shortcomings once again, or will he be brought to his knees by a little spider not much different than himself?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

The cell was dank, damp with the water that seeped through the walls from the ground above it, and it made the air heavy and putrid. Loki had grown used to the feel of the wall sticking at his back, as he had known it for months now.

Despite the wetness, his throat was dry, as he was kept muzzled and starved as part of his imprisonment. It was meant to weaken him, both mentally and physically. Starvation was only torture for an immortal such as himself, not a means to kill him.

Perhaps physically it was effective, though Loki was restrained securely enough that he could not hope to test it. His arms were restrained by magically enforced bonds at his back, with only a short length of chain attaching it to the wall. His ankles were bound in the same fashion, though secured to the floor instead.

Though the God of Mischief's tongue was his greatest strength, the muzzle was pointless in his current position. His cell was very secluded, located in such high security that he had no hopes of a soul to manipulate.

In all of Asgard, the only person to make the effort to see him was his brother, Thor. If he could be called such a thing.

The door to his cell only had a small slit at eye level, but was otherwise a thick slab of magically sealed metal he had no hopes of escaping. Loki would hear only the faintest sound of a back coming to rest against the metal, and he would know Thor was on the other side of it.

Thor would often sit there in silence for a long time before speaking. He came only with one of two things, his anger or his guilt.

Today, when Loki heard his brother take his usual position at the door, his companion was his guilt.

''Our father sends his regrets that he has not come to see you,'' Thor said after a while. Inside his cell, Loki rolled his eyes. He had not seen Odin since the day of his trial by the Asgardian court. He knew that Thor pretending that Odin would care enough to even try to make the effort to see him, was more for his own benefit than Loki's.

''I am sorry I failed you, brother,'' Thor said. If Loki could speak, he would not have had a response. It was the same thing he said every time he came, a script he never broke from. Playing and fighting and growing together, and Thor had nothing more to say to him.

''Father is preparing himself for Odinsleep tonight,'' Thor stated suddenly. This was new information, and Loki's head rose from his chest in curiosity. ''I will presume the throne tomorrow.''

Instantly, Loki was filled with rage. It was hot and burning and liquid in his veins. But when he heard Thor stand from his position against the door, he was careful to mask his face when his brother looked at him through the observation slit.

''I cannot unmake our father's fate for you. This imprisonment, I do not think it wrong,'' Thor stated to him. His eyes, always so loving and sincere, met with his brother's. ''But it pains me to see you like this. I can change this, make this more comfortable...''

Loki turned his head away, feigning disappointment, though on the other side of the muzzle, a small smirk was playing on his lips.

''I am sorry, brother. But that is all that I can do. I will see you soon,'' Thor stated, and then he was gone.

Where Loki had seen no light at the end of his imprisonment, there was now an end in sight to it. His brother's weakness for him would result in his return to power, a fair price for him to pay for such a human trait.

* * *

Thor came later that night, a few hours after Odin had laid to rest, and brought with him a few Asgardians to help relocate Loki safely and with no incident.

But the few seconds that his restraints were removed to be replaced with ones suitable for transport were enough for him to act. In the confusion of the appearance of projections of himself, the guards fumbled over his restraints, and Loki was free.

It was only as the original form of himself shut the guards and Thor in his abandoned cell that he addressed his brother. He removed the muzzle from his mouth, and met Thor's eyes evenly through the observation slit as he dropped it to the ground.

''To make you king in Odin's place would be the gravest mistake of Asgard,'' Loki said, and though his voice was calm, the words held bite that tore at Thor's insides. ''I once envied your strength. But you are not strong anymore. The humans have taught you their pathetic ways, and you have brought yourself down to their lowly level.''

He started to turn away from the cell then, but then rethought and returned his gaze again to Thor's.

''Do not worry, _brother_. I will avenge you.''

* * *

Author's Note: I was so taken by this movie. I have seen all of the movies that led up to it, and I have read every Black Widow comic that I managed to get my hands on. I just started reading Marvel comics a few months prior to The Avengers, my knowledge is lacking, so please excuse any mistakes. I know my DC a lot better. I am totally in love with Black Widow (I even plan to cosplay her at Comic-Con this year) and after breaking my heart in Thor, and again in this movie, I have fallen head over heels for Loki. The pairing makes so much sense, it's hard to imagine it any other way. Please enjoy my story and review, I hope I do not disappoint ^_^.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

The air that caressed Natasha Romanoff's face as she drove her S.H.I.E.L.D. issued jeep through the deserted land of New Mexico was warm against her cheeks, and sent her fire-red hair whipping around her face.

She was returning to the newly erected headquarters in Nevada, one of the few states on the western coast that was secluded enough to host such an expansive facility, after completing a mission in Texas.

Since The Avengers had split after the event in New York City, she was the only one to return to active duty with S.H.I.E.L.D. immediately. Clint Barton was still on leave, and the others had returned to their own lives; Stark with his tower, Banner with his patients, Thor back in Asgard with his brother, and Rogers still working on catching up with the times.

Natasha prefered to stay on duty, to keep herself busy. If she didn't, she would think of Agent Coulson's death, the red on her ledger that would never be wiped clean...

She frowned at the thought. She'd always held in her mind that she could right her wrongs. It wasn't until her conversation with Loki on the helicarrier that she had doubts about the absolution of her crimes.

With the thought of Loki, she realized now that she was near the location of Thor's first appearance on Earth. He'd dropped from the eye of a storm and to the desert floor. And as her eyes questioningly sought out the spot she knew from his file, the flicker of light in the sky would be her answer.

The light fell from the sky, came crashing to the ground in a cloud of dirt and dust. Natasha swore in Russian, and swerved the van off of the road just in time to avoid a piece of debris that scattered in her path from the collision.

Another piece clipped the jeep, large enough to offset the wheels and cause her to lose control of the vehicle. As the jeep began to flip, she jumped out of the open window and rolled along the rugged desert floor, cursing loudly as she did, feeling the rocks and plants tear at her skin and her leather jumpsuit.

The jeep crashed and rolled a few times before coming to a stop on its side, the metal crying against the abuse. Natasha grunted as she forced herself up from the ground, and she began her advance on the site of the crash.

As she increased her speed she checked for her guns, pulling one from the holster on her thigh and raising it in preparation for a possible attack.

The debris was mostly settled by the time she made it to the site, and when she saw movement at the center of it she hid behind a boulder to observe before she advanced.

She watched as the figure stood, unfolded himself to his full stature. His back was to her, but she knew the broad shoulders, the lean body clad in green, black, and silver all too well.

And when he turned to face where she was hidden, his identity was confirmed. Her eyes scanned over the pale, sculped face, the raven-black hair slicked back from his face. He was sweating and breathing heavily, weakened perhaps from his travels, and though she knew this man to be feared, something much more frightening caught her attention.

Clasped in his hands, glowing strong and blue and powerful, was the Tesseract.

* * *

''I am not one to be snuck up on twice, Agent Romanoff,'' he breathed, his words heavy with exhaustion. ''What a fate of mine, that one of you wretches would be the first to happen upon me.''

Natasha rose from her spot behind the boulder, gun trained on Loki. ''A fate befitting someone such as yourself.''

''Someone such as myself?'' He inquired, an eyebrow raising only in the slightest, and his lip twinged in amusement. His body was weakening now, and he was fighting to stay on his feet.

''Someone doomed to fail,'' she stated.

Her words woke a rage in him that fueled him. His face drained of any amusement it had held before, and only a deadly seriousness remained. He adjusted himself back to his full height and he approached her slowly, each step a threat.

She backed up a step with each of his to keep the distance, but when she found herself backed into another disgarded boulder, she remained in place. She did not like being cornered, but she could not turn her back on him to escape.

''You may have defeated me once, but you will not defeat me again,'' he stated, still taking minor steps towards her.

''And what is your plan this time?'' she inquired, forcing her eyes to stay trained on him as her mind searched for a route of escape. ''We have no other monsters in our closets for you to manipulate, Banner-''

''Banner is not the only monster in your closet,'' Loki said, a slight smirk playing at his lips. ''Only the largest.''

He was face to face with the barrel of her gun now.

''The weakest of them all,'' Loki said, his eyes meeting hers over the barrel, ''You have nothing more to offer than your beautiful face and these pitiful weapons. Neither will win you a fight against a god.''

Natasha said nothing, but raised her chin slightly in defiance.

Loki raised his hand slowly, clasping his fingers around her wrist, and lowered the weapon to her waist without resistance. The slightest pressure and her hand released the gun, and it clattered noisily to the ground.

And there was her opening. With both of his hands taken, one by her wrist and the other by the Tesseract, she brought her one free hand up and struck the god across the face with a closed fist.

He pulled back in shock, and she drew her knee to her chest and kicked out, sending him flying back and giving herself momentum to flip up and over the boulder at her back.

Loki landed on his feet, skidding to a stop in the dirt. He advanced on the Black Widow, and though she expertly blocked most of his strikes, he landed one backhanded swing to the side of her face, and she collided harshly with the ground.

''Stay down, little spider,'' he spat. He brushed his fingers across his lip where her first blow had landed, and when he drew it back it was spotted with blood. His eyebrows raised in surprise, as he was weakened enough from his imprisonment and his travel by the Tesseract to be injured by a human woman.

She saw the blood, and their eyes met for only a split second before she went to draw another gun stashed at her waist. But he was too fast for her, and he kicked the gun from her hand and lifted her up roughly by her arm. She felt the pop of her shoulder from its appropriate socket, and with little effort he tossed her through the air. She rolled a few moments before her back and head struck a solid boulder, and the edges of her vision blurred.

She scrambled for her first discarded gun, and this time she was fast enough. She pulled the trigger just as he moved above her, and he recoiled back, his hand flying to his side. There was little blood, but a few droplets spilled down onto her leather jumpsuit.

She stumbled to her feet, and though she was unsteady, her hands did not waver as she kept the gun trained on Loki. He was doubled over, but his head was back and his eyes were on hers. A cold shiver ran through her then, and though she had the upper hand now, she knew his eyes promised that he would have his revenge.

''You have bested me weak, Agent Romanoff,'' he said, slowly drawing himself up again. But the way he walked towards her seemed off, and when she pulled the trigger again and the bullet passed through the projection, her heart lodged in her throat.

She felt the cold press of his hand to her neck from behind, felt his cold fingers wrap around her throat, and when his other hand coiled around her injured shoulder, her vision began to go dark.

''When we meet again, I will not be so,'' he breathed into her ear, and the cold sent violent shivers up her spine.

When he spoke again, it was a whisper. ''I will tear your little family apart, one by one, and I will make sure you see them all fall.''

He released her then, letting her cripple to the ground. When he was gone, Natasha pressed the button to the microphone in her ear, her direct communication with Director Fury. As she nursed her wounded arm, she explained the situation to Fury with her last few conscious breaths. Just as the edges of the black overcame her, she heard Fury ordering a medic to her location.

* * *

Author's Note: The first encounter is always the hardest to write, in any story. It sets the tone for the next one, and pretty much all of the ones after. Hopefully it was good. Thank you for reading, please review!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

They were all there at Natasha's bedside in the medical ward at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters when she woke: Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit, Bruce Banner in casual clothes, Steve Rogers in his stars and stripes, Clint Barton with his bow, and Thor with his Mjolnir looking down at the floor.

Director Nick Fury was standing in the doorway with his back to them.

''Good morning, princess,'' Tony Stark greeted her, the first to notice her eyes open, and the others turned their attention to her.

She grunted as she sat up in the bed. Her shoulder still ached, but her superior healing had advanced the process, and it would be completely repaired soon enough. ''Why are all of you suited up?''

''Loki went straight from you to headquarters,'' Nick Fury stated, before turning to face her as well. ''He stole back his scepter, took a few people with him.''

''Fortunately, this time he left the place standing,'' Rogers stated. Unlike Fury and Rogers, the others looked unmarred by battle. ''We did not all make it here in time to try to stop him,'' he stated, and the good boy's voice was laced slightly with bitterness.

''If I had, the place would not still be standing,'' Banner stated wryly.

''And some of us cannot just drop everything in a second to come to the rescue,'' Tony snapped.

''Then what is the point of being a part of The Avengers?'' Rogers snapped back. ''If you are too busy?''

''If I recall, I wasn't given much of a choice. And if I hadn't been a part of this team, you'd all have been flattened by the- I don't know- deadly nuclear missle headed your way last time.''

''And for that, we are grateful,'' Nick Fury stated, though it was meant more to shut Tony up than to actually recognize his heroic actions. ''I thought we already made it past the part where we learn how to act as a team?''

When no one objected, knowing Fury was right, he continued.

''We need to find out his plan. Agent Romanoff stated that he intends to take you each out one by one. Therefore, I believe it will be strength in numbers that will defeat him, so I need full teamwork and cooperation from all of you.''

''_All_ of you,'' Fury repeated, just as Tony opened his mouth to object. ''In fact, Stark, did you not construct your new tower to house all of the Avengers in case of such a situation?''

''I did, but-''

''But what?'' Fury interjected, and his tone made Tony back down and shake his head.

''I will have Pepper get the rooms ready.''

They all started filing out the door, until it was only Agent Romanoff and Thor to exit. Just as she was about to pass him, his hand wrapped around her arm to stop her, and though it was gentle, it caused a flash of her encounter with Loki to pass through her mind and she jerked her arm free, so violently that her back hit against the doorframe.

The sound caught the attention of the others, and they all glanced back in time to see Natasha curse at herself and continue on her way. She passed all of them in the hall, heading towards the roof where they would travel by plane to Stark's tower.

The others still stayed where they were, looking to Thor for an explanation.

''I only wished to apologize to Agent Romanoff,'' Thor said, his expression as guilty as ever, sure he knew why she had recoiled in such a way. He was, after all, Loki's brother.

* * *

''We'll take shifts between three different posts,'' Steve Rogers was stating, taking his position once again as leader of The Avengers. ''Two will sleep, two will keep guard of the tower, and two will search for Loki.''

With no objections, he continued. ''Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff have worked together before on a mission so-''

''I would prefer to be paired with someone else, Captain,'' Agent Barton interjected.

Natasha was the only one to keep the surprise off of her face. After Loki had taken over his mind, Clint had not been the same. He avoided her at all costs, and when she had grown frustrated enough to confront him about it, he had given her an acceptable reason and so she did not fight him.

Loki had used the information in Clint's head against him, his feelings for Natasha against him. It was better to not have such attachments, to be compromised in such a way in case of future incident.

''Alright...'' Captain said finally, after a long pause. ''Agent Barton will be with me, Agent Romanoff with be with Dr. Banner, and Thor will be with Stark.''

''Fair enough,'' Tony stated. ''We will take the first search. I believe Agent Romanoff should get some more rest before another possible encounter with Loki.''

''I would prefer to take the first search,'' Clint demanded, face stiff with anger, ''I want to find him right now and put an end to this.''

Natasha suppressed a frown at Clint's eagerness to go up against Loki once again, ''Do you think it's best for you to-''

''You would be the last person to know what's best for me!'' Clint snapped at her. ''You don't know what it was like to be a human puppet for that guy! I want to take him out-''

''That reason, precisely, is why Agent Romanoff is right,'' Tony Stark began.

He held up a hand when Clint began to object, before continuing. ''Reindeer Games has his scepter back, and the Tesseract. We don't know if you'll be more inclined to fall in with him again since you were already exposed once. Honestly, I'm against you going to search for him altogether.''

Clint shook his head, and his face began to color with his anger. He took one threatening step towards Tony and Steve moved to stand in between them. ''Be professional, Agent Barton.''

''Loki wants to take us out using our own personal monsters,'' Natasha supplied, and they all turned to look at her. She kept her eyes on Barton. ''You have to admit, he is the trigger for yours.''

Barton said nothing, just turned away and stormed from the room.

Steve turned to Tony and Thor, and gave them a nod. ''Alert us if you find him.''

''Will do,'' Tony said, before latching his helmet into place, and pressing a button on the wall for the window to open. When he and Thor were gone, Natasha pressed the same button to close the window, and when it came to rest in place, the room was dead silent.

After a few heavy moments, Natasha left the room, not in search of Clint, but to find a bed to rest in.

* * *

Author's Note: Not much excitement in this chapter, I apologize. Still, I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading, and please review!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

The first few days passed uneventfully. They took their turns between searching, watching, and sleeping. The searches always came without incident, and when the Avengers would lay their heads to rest, their sleep was never interrupted.

Unless by their own doing.

Thor would often sit up on the edge of his bed and blame himself for Loki's actions. Clint would pace his room for hours without a moment of rest. Natasha would feel Loki's cold fingers on her neck and wake up gasping for air whenever she closed her eyes. Steve would take his frustration out on a punching bag until it broke. Bruce would sit up reading or be out of the room sharing ideas and theories with Tony when he was on watch.

Tony was the only one to never miss a second of his beauty sleep.

* * *

On the fourth day, Natasha woke in the usual cold sweat. After a quick shower, she suited up and joined Bruce Banner in the living room to take over for Tony and Thor, who had just arrived back from their search.

They said nothing, just passed by to take over the watch for Clint and Steve so that they could get some rest as well.

Natasha and Bruce went down Tony's personal elevator, borrowed one of the cars from his collection, and took it out on the New York City streets to begin their search for the day. They were limited with their travel, as neither of them were able to fly, so they braved the traffic.

They really had no idea where to look. Loki could be long gone by now, even on the other side of the world. But for some reason, they knew he was here, knew he would not distance himself from the Avengers, from those he wanted most.

After sweeping the main streets, Natasha went to a more deserted part of the city. She figured abandoned buildings and warehouses would be easiest for Loki and his companions to set up shop, though given the amount of them it would be impossible to search them all in only a few hours.

That's why over the past few days, Natasha and Banner had been strategically searching different parts of the city and the possible locations in each Loki could be hiding. They had at least a dozen maps of the city drawn up, each spotted with black where they had investigated and came up with nothing.

After the first building of the day was a bust, Natasha and Bruce got back in the car and drove to the next location. She listened to him list the statistics of finding Loki today, or even within the next week, running through the numbers in his head and then aloud. She knew he meant it to be comforting, giving her hope that it was possible, but it was more of a distraction than anything and Natasha was not one for distractions.

When they pulled up in front of the next building, an old warehouse that had been shut down for unsafe work conditions relating to the structural foundation of the building, Bruce fell silent and folded up the map he'd been looking at and set it on the dashboard of the car.

He stayed back while Natasha crossed the expanse of asphalt between the street and the warehouse, her feet ghosting across the ground expertly as her training had taught her. When she reached the door, old and worn and already cracked open, she slipped inside without a sound.

And then she felt it, this wave of dread overcome her, the feeling she knew would come when she ran across Loki again. ''Banner!''

And then the room was flooding with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, all under the control of Loki. She heard Bruce come into the room behind her, and by his labored breathing, she knew he was fighting to keep the other guy at bay.

They ducked behind a few rusted machines just before the first wave of bullets had been fired, and Natasha abandoned Bruce to take out the advancing agents.

She was careful not to hurt them too badly, they were S.H.I.E.L.D. after all. But she swept over them with ease, slick like liquid, leaving their unconscious bodies in her wake.

When they were all down, she stood there catching her breath, her back to Bruce. She could hear footsteps a ways away, and knew it would be another flood of agents. ''We need to get out of here.''

''There is nowhere for you to go, little spider.''

The words had been spoken so closely to her that the breath was cool on her ear. She spun around fast and came face to face with Loki.

He had an amused smile on his face, as if he were very pleased with himself for sneaking up on her, but as always with Loki, it was tinted with menace.

He looked much better than the last time she had seen him. Where he had looked weak and frail after his travel back to Earth, he looked healthy and strong and as arrogant as always. And for that small moment as Natasha looked over him in silence, still clad in the black and green and silver costume from Asgard that fit perfectly to his slim form, she admitted to herself that he was handsome.

''Loki, get away from her!'' she heard Bruce say, but the words were muffled and twisted, and her eyes were trained on Loki.

The next moment was fast, her hand going for her weapon and his lashing out. He grabbed her wrist before it fulling cleared the gun from its holster, and brought the other up around her neck. He tossed her to the floor easily, as if he was flicking a speck of dirt from his clothes.

She used the momentum to roll to her feet, but he was there the next moment in front of her, and sent her crashing into a pile of molding crates. They crumpled easily under her impact, and she grunted when she hit the concrete floor beneath them. She rolled free of the debris to face him, but his attention was now elsewhere.

Bruce Banner was shifting, his eyes already gone to those of the beast, and in a few moments time he was large and green and towering over Loki and Natasha.

After her last personal encounter with Hulk, Natasha was not waiting around. He tended to attack indiscriminately, and she did not want to be on the receiving end once again.

She turned on her heel and ran towards the doors in the back of the warehouse, unsure if they led underground or out of the building. She took her chances, and when she got to the door she turned back for a moment, hoping to see the Hulk distracted with Loki.

But Hulk only swatted at empty projections, and Loki laughed at him through them, angering him further. Frustrated, Hulk turned towards where she was standing, and her eyes widened in fear as he charged towards her next.

She ducked out of the doors, and found they were to a stairwell that led lower. She spilled fluidly over the railings and fell the few feet to the lower landing, before pulling open the door.

Just inside the room, she felt a few trickles of concrete fall from the ceiling above her, and she ducked and rolled out of the way as the foundation collapsed under the weight of Hulk and came crashing down where she had been.

Hulk recovered quickly from the fall, spotted her and grabbed her before she could recover too. He tossed her across the ground, and she rolled until she lost momentum and skidded across the concrete on her side. When she came to a stop, she got to her feet, ready for Hulk to be coming for her again, but he only screamed at her from across the room, and punched the ceiling above his head.

The concrete floor above them cracked, and the crack spread all around. She tried to watch where the floor was splitting, to escape and not be crushed when it collapsed, but then she heard the footsteps once again, close now, and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents began approaching her and Hulk at every side.

She tried to focus on taking out the agents, but she got distracted every time she would hear the crack expand in the floor above her. She took a blow to her shoulder by the butt of one of the agents guns, and she cursed aloud and sent a vicious kick to his head, a blow from which he did not stand.

A bullet grazed her side and she cried out in pain, and after leaping onto the agent's shoulders and twisting him around and to the ground, she remained down on the floor with him, gritting her teeth against the pain.

Just then, the floor above Hulk finally gave and he disappeared in a cloud of dust, beneath giant slabs of concrete and machines and crates. He did not stir.

The few lights that had been on suddenly went out, casting them all in complete darkness. When Natasha heard the floor start falling along the path between Hulk and her, she scrambled to her feet to escape. But not in time.

She heard the ground falling before she could hope to move out of the way. But in the end she did not have to. She felt the breath rush out of her when another body collided with hers, strong arms wrapping around her as they rolled together in the darkness to avoid the falling floor.

Natasha could not see her savior, but when the cool fingers of his hand brushed her neck as he removed himself from her, she knew. She had felt those same fingers on her throat every night now, she would not mistake them.

But she could not find the breath to speak, and she knew by the time the dust settled, he and whatever remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. agents he had would be long gone. She pressed the microphone in her ear, now set to go to Stark instead of Fury. ''Tony...'' she managed out.

''Tasha, what's wrong?'' Tony said urgently, but she didn't reply. Couldn't reply.

After the exertion of her body and the assault she had taken, her body shut down automatically to heal. Before she could manage any more words out, her mind went as black as the room around her.

* * *

Author's Note: Action scenes are so much fun to write! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please continue reading, and review!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

For the second time in the past week, Natasha woke up in a medical ward. However, this time it was not in S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters but in the Stark tower. And only Tony was at her bedside, reading a magazine that had his face plastered on the front of it.

''People keep saying I am 'narcissistic' and 'egotistical' like it's a bad thing,'' Tony said when he saw she was awake, looking up from the article he was reading to meet her eyes.

When she moved to sit up, he waved his finger at her like she was a disobedient child. ''Oh no, my little shot of vodka, you better not get up. Because- funny thing, me using the word 'shot'- you _got_ shot.''

''It only grazed me,'' she said, but she knew she was wrong when she stubbornly tried to sit up again.

''Nope,'' he said. ''You got shot dead-on. Lucky for you, between the little extra-special healing abilities you've got going for you and the fact that it didn't hit any essential organs, you'll be fine.''

There was a knock on the door, and the others filed into the room. She frowned at them. ''Why are all of you here? Why is no one out looking for Loki?''

''Agent Romanoff, you were gravely injured-'' Steve started, but she glowered at him.

''I am fine. The fate of the world is a little more important than one person being hurt,'' she said. This time, she ignored the pain as she sat up and slid her legs off the side of the bed. She pulled her feet back when they touched the ice-cold floor.

''Both are equally important to us,'' Tony said. The others looked at him, surprised at the lack of selfishness in his comment. ''I mean- to them. To them.''

''Can we get back to the search already?'' Clint asked. ''Since she said she's fine?''

Steve shot a look to Stark, and they seemed to have words between each other without speaking. But with one last concerned glance back to Natasha, he nodded his head and he and Clint left.

''We do have a few questions for you, Agent Romanoff, if you don't mind answering them in your current condition,'' Bruce said timidly.

She easily agreed. She was used to being debriefed after a mission, no matter her condition. And they were not kind enough to ask in Russia.

They asked her details about the fight with Loki and the agents, to map out the events that Bruce could not remember as Hulk. She left out the part about Loki saving her, and when they were finished they left the room.

When Thor made to leave as well, she called for him to stay back. He looked at her, surprised, but moved to stand by the bed in front of her.

''Loki saved me,'' she said.

Thor's head, which had been bowed slightly, rose with this news. ''He what?''

''The floor was going to crush me, but he pushed me out of the way,'' she recalled.

Thor smiled slightly, as if proud. ''Why did you not tell the doctor, and the man of iron?''

As she looked upon this powerful god, so true and pure and soft-hearted, she had to force herself not to be kind. She knew he had to face the reality of the situation, that despite the small act of kindness Loki had performed, his red ledger could not be cleaned unless he truly wanted it to be.

''Because it doesn't change anything,'' she said bluntly. It was harsh, and cold, and Thor's smile faltered. His head fell down once again.

She slipped off of the hospital bed, forcing herself to walk across the room towards the door despite the pain. She glanced back at Thor, with his head down deep in thought, and her cold heart hurt. But she pushed it aside, focusing instead on the physical pain, for compared to the other it was nothing.

* * *

They made her stay in the tower for two days before allowing her to join the search for Loki once again. It would have been longer, but being confined to that space was driving her insane, especially with only dreams of Loki to keep her company. The others were too distracted to really be much entertainment, and she herself wasn't much for small talk.

Thor was now her partner, as Banner did not want to risk exposing Natasha to Hulk for a third time. Most of the others could withstand a confrontation with him, but Natasha had gotten lucky too many times now. She may have been genetically enhanced by the Russians, but for the most part she was still human.

She let Thor take the lead in the search, trusting he knew his brother enough to have an idea of where to locate him. But they hadn't been searching for more than fifteen minutes when they got the call from Fury.

Fury tapped into all of their communcation lines, and his voice burst over the speakers in their ears, urgent and demanding. ''Avengers to headquarters. Loki has been spotted in Las Vegas. We believe he intends to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters once again, but for now he is stalled. I think he is waiting for you.''

Fury cut the line, and Thor and Natasha returned to Stark tower to find the others suited up and waiting. They took one of Stark's private jets, which would cut the air time at least in half, though with Clint piloting he was sure to get them there even faster.

Natasha only found out the plan Tony and Steve had concocted after they were in the air. And when they were nearing the landing strip Tony had arranged, he took great pride in letting the fabric of the dress he had picked out for Natasha dangle from his hands, along with a pair of heels.

They planned to use her as bait, to draw Loki out. Or draw information out of Loki, at least. It was her expertise after all, to manipulate. And she would be the only one that would not draw significant attention besides Barton, who they didn't trust to be in such a close proximity to Loki.

She snatched the dress from Tony and changed in the private room in the back of the jet. She refused to look at the bed, or else her mind would wonder about how many women Tony had taken to it in his prime years. The thought repulsed her, and she quickly stripped down and into the dress.

It was beautiful really. It had straps about an inch thick that fit close to her collar bones, and it was cut lowly enough surely to be distracting even to a god. The black was stark against her pale skin, and it made her red hair as vibrant as ever. There was a slit up one leg to the waist, and when she returned to the main cabin of the vessel, she claimed the heels from Tony and slipped them on as well.

When she looked up at the others, they were all staring at her.

''What?''

But she knew the look well.

They turned their heads away, some looking ashamed and others feigning innocence.

When the plane landed, they were immediately met by a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, who escorted them quickly to two separate vehicles that would take them to Loki's location.

* * *

They were taken to the Luxor, where Loki had been spotted in one of the banquet halls. That's where Natasha came into play, blending and seeping into the event as if she belonded there, as her training had taught her. And her assimilation was flawless. On less periless missions, she would take the time to truly blend, to fool even herself that she belonged for a moment.

But not here, not now. Her eyes were always searching, always flickering from one face to the next.

Until her eyes finally found their target. And where she would usually take this time to advance on her prey, he did not give her the chance.

He was suddenly there beside her, his hand a cool presence on her lower back, and he breathed a gentle threat into her ear that to others would have looked like a sweet secret spoken to a lover. A smile twinged at his lips as he said, ''Play along with me, Agent Romanoff, or I will kill every being in this room.''

And when he turned innocently away, he took no time in making acquaintences with whomever she had been speaking with a moment before. After a few minutes of small talk, he excused them both politely from the event.

The hand was more firm now on her back as he led her away from the banquet hall, its presence there more intimidating than before. He turned her down a more secluded hallway, making twists and turns that she tried to keep track of in her head. They were in the back recesses of the building now, where she doubted the public were meant to be, but there were no living souls around to take notice of them.

''Do you wonder why I brought you here, to this place specifically?'' he inquired. She realized too late that he'd led her into a dead end, and she moved away from his hand quickly to put distance between them. But he took the position closest to the open part of the hallway, leaving her trapped between him and the wall at her back.

When she didn't answer, he continued. ''If I could have, I would have led you to the pyramids themselves, but this will serve my point well enough,'' he stated. ''The Luxor is structured after the pyramids in Egypt, as I am sure you well know. A prime example of what beauty humans can create, when their fate is not in their own hands for them to dirty.''

''When their freedom is taken away,'' she supplied.

''Precisely,'' he said, with his trademark smirk.

She took this time to look him over, while he was standing there before her in all his elegant glory. He had traded his Asgardian garments for a finely tailored black suit, much like the one he'd worn in Germany, if not the same. A green scarf was wrapped loosely around his neck, his scepter disguised as a walking stick in his hand, and his hair was slicked back gracefully from his face, leaving it exposed fully to her eyes.

''Why did you save me?'' she asked suddenly.

''Do you think me soft?'' he inquired, his eyebrow raising slightly, an amused smile dancing on his lips. ''Is that what you are hoping?''

''I think you want to do it yourself,'' she stated. She started taking small, precise steps towards him, and his eyes flickered down her body in response, hesitating on certain parts of her body predictably. ''To watch the life bleed from my eyes.'' She was right in front of him now, with her chest an inch from his.

She reached a hand up slowly and touched the side of his neck with her fingertips, staring up at his beautiful green eyes. ''Or that's what you have convinced yourself, when really you are too afraid to. Is it because like so many men, you fear success?''

''Or is it because you are afraid to lose that one last bit of hope your brother holds for you, because deep down, you are still that little child that followed him around like a lost puppy, hoping for his attention and desperate for his approval?'' She smiled then, and his own amusement drained from his face.

His strike was sharp, violent, and she crashed into the wall and crumpled to the floor. He did not strike again, but watched as she forced herself up to lean against the wall.

''And whose approval do you seek?'' he spat in anger. ''You have no parents, no family left alive. You were nothing more than a puppet to Russia and you are nothing more than a puppet to S.H.I.E.L.D. and your fellow Avengers. Why else have they sent you here to me, to serve your purpose and to die?''

''You are your government's weapon,'' he continued. ''And nothing more. And the one thing that your world can not protect itself from, little spider, is itself.''

The words were meant to bite, and maybe somewhere deep down they did, but Natasha only smiled as she picked herself up from the ground and slinked past Loki towards the open hallway. She turned on her heel to face him, bowing her head slightly as she spoke. It was all too familiar, and he cursed the words even before they slipped from her lips. ''Thank you for your cooperation.''

But this time, Loki was not behind a thick wall of glass. He was free to break her in his hands for her insolence. But she would not go down without a fight.

* * *

Author's Note: This chapter turned out longer than I intended, which I hope is a good thing. I am excited to start the next one! I am trying to slowly ease into the foundation of their relationship, so I'm sorry if it had not yet taken a very Black Widow/Loki pairing tone yet, but I promise it will in time. Please review in the meantime ^_^.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Loki's image blurred as the mirage of normalcy faded away and his usual Asgardian attire returned to his form. Her eyes stayed trained on the walking stick, which had morphed back into his scepter, sharp and gleaming in the brightly lit hallway. ''How do you think you will fair if we tango once again?'' he inquired, his arrogant smile returning to his face.

She said nothing, just kept watching him with narrowed eyes, body poised to strike.

''Though I have to admit I quite enjoy it,'' he said, his smile less menacing this time. ''I am used to sparring with Asgardians. They may be gods, but they lack the elegance that you fight with.''

When she didn't respond, he frowned at her disapprovingly, but she knew he was playing her. ''I paid you a compliment, Agent Romanoff. It is rude of you to not acknowledge such a thing.''

''Thank you,'' she replied, though it lacked sincerity.

''Absolute power will win over skill every time,'' he told her condescendingly. ''And unfortunately for you, I possess both.''

He tossed the scepter from one hand to the other, and she dropped down to the ground, splitting her legs to meld with the floor as the power of the Tesseract in his scepter blasted into the wall behind her. She swept her body around, catching his legs. He fell and rolled away from her, back onto his feet.

She dodged another blow from the scepter by leaping at the wall, and she used her momentum to project herself behind Loki, catching the god off of his game for only a moment. She twisted her body around his, making him eat his compliment as she spilled over him like liquid, twisting him until they both fell to the floor.

She had his wrist with the scepter pinned to the floor with her knee the next moment, her other knee on the ground on the opposite side of his chest. She used the pressure of her body on his chest to keep him grounded.

Surprise flickered in his eyes, but they narrowed a moment later in defiance. He lifted his other hand to grab a handful of fabric at her waist before she could pin it as well, and between a combination of pulling it to the side to throw off her balance and his own brute strength, he flipped her down onto her back, towering over her now instead.

He trapped her hands beneath his scepter, holding in it place with one hand, while the other feathered down her face to come to a rest on her neck. His fingers there sent a shiver through her, and he smiled as he felt it pass through her whole body.

He stared down at her beneath him, fuming and seething beneath his grip, like a spider trapped under a cup for too long. And slowly his smile faded as he watched her, until all that was left of his expression was a blatant curiosity. His eyes fluttered softly over her face, to the pulse that jumped beneath the soft skin of her neck, and then back to her face again to meet her angry eyes.

Something passed over his face then, and though it was only for a moment, it made some of the anger seep from her body in response. And he seemed to realize what he had done then, the mistake he had made, for the arrogance returned to his face the next moment, and he produced a small blade from his sleeve.

He stabbed her in the side, high enough that he missed the organs in her stomach and low enough just to miss her lung. It was not a deadly blow, but it was not meant to be so, only meant to hurt the woman.

He kept her eyes when he first slipped the blade into her body, and she gritted her teeth to keep from crying out. This angered him, her defiance even in this moment, and he removed himself from her body. ''Sentiment,'' he said as he gazed down at her, before disappearing into the air.

Before she could question why he had disappeared, she got her answer when the others came spilling around the corner.

''Agent Romanoff,'' Steve said, his eyebrows raising in shocked, but she brushed him off when he came to help her. She sat up, pulling the blade from her stomach.

''It wasn't deep,'' she said, her hand covering the wound to stop the little bit of blood that still seeped through the small laceration. ''How did you know to come?''

''We tried to contact you,'' Tony stated. ''You didn't answer.''

''I think I may have found the problem,'' Bruce said. He passed by Natasha and Steve and crouched down on the ground, before lifting the dislodged earpiece from the floor.

''It must have fallen out during the fight,'' she said, and when Banner handed it to her, she returned it to its place.

It was silent a moment as they gave her time to recover. But she didn't need it, taking Steve's hand up out of politeness rather than necessity, and moved to leave. Loki would be on his way to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters now, and they needed to beat him there.

After all, she has accomplished her mission. She knew his plan.

* * *

''He's stealing the HYDRA weapons?'' Steve demanded in shock, surprised at the information Natasha had pulled from Loki. They were all cramped in the back of one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles, screaming down the road toward headquarters.

''To infuse them with the Tesseract,'' she explained. ''I believe he intends to use them as he does his scepter, to force his control over those struck with the weapons. He said that as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, I am a weapon. That we are not equipped to protect ourselves from ourselves.''

''He'll use them on the other agents, but ultimately, he wants to use them on us,'' Bruce finished, and she nodded her confirmation. ''There are no replicas of ourselves to take us out when we are under his control. Once we are on his side, we've lost.''

''Brilliant,'' Tony said sarcastically.

''Well, we already know you cannot be controlled,'' Steve reminded him optimistically. ''So we have one thing going for us. The rest of us just have to be extra careful not to slip up.''

''That's a lot easier said than done when we have the entire agency fighting against us,'' Clint inserted.

Tension was high as they neared headquarters. Tony and Thor left them after Natasha had finished explaining Loki's plan to fly ahead in hopes of cutting off Loki and his agents.

From what they heard over their communication lines, they failed to do so. Loki and the agents were wreaking havoc in the building. His progress was slow, and they knew he was taking his time to toy with them, like dangling a mouse in front of the cat and then taking it away.

But what Loki often seemed to discount in doing so, is that cats have claws.

* * *

When the others reached the facility, they immediately evacuated the van and rushed inside the building. With his anger finely focused, Banner transformed into Hulk as Natasha drew her weapons from their holsters and Clint poised his bow to fire. Steve went ahead of them, adorned with his shield, and they braced themselves for the oncoming battle.

* * *

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Knowing headquarters well, Natasha left the others to take out the agents in the halls, and took a stealthier route through the facility. She knew where the weapons were located, and she was sure at least one of the agents with Loki did as well, so she headed there.

She slid along the air ducts, quickly at first where the noise below was loud enough to drown out her movements, but she slowed when she neared where the weapons were located, where it was quieter.

When she peered down through the vent, she saw two armed guards standing outside of the door. Unsure if they were with Loki or not, she made a small noise to draw their attention to check their eyes.

When she saw the glazed, glowing blue eyes, she dropped down onto their shoulders, wrapping one of her legs around each of their necks and drawing them together. Their heads cracked loudly against each other, and she was quick to retreat back into the air duct in case anyone had heard the sound.

She passed silently through the duct until she was inside the room where the weapons were located. Below her, at least forty S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were readying the weapons to be transported to another location. Sitting on top of a stack of crates like a make-shift throne, Loki watched them all with an elbow on his knee and his chin on his closed fist, a small smirk playing on his lips.

As the agents opened the crates and removed the weapons, they lined up in front of the Tesseract, which was set up on a crate to Loki's right. It was hooked up to some sort of machine, smaller than the one Dr. Selvig had created for him before but similar in construction.

When the agents would put a weapon near enough to it, a stream of power would shoot into it from the Tesseract and they would return it to a crate to be moved.

This was unanticipated. The Avengers could not have guessed that he would already have an instrument constructed to implement his plan. Loki was wasting no time.

Natasha dropped down then, into a crouch before Loki. He leaned back slowly in his throne, resting against the crate stacked behind him, a flicker of surprise on his face.

She met his eyes for only a moment, before turning her back to him and attacking the agents. She knew he was arrogant enough to believe she would fall to numbers this great, but when she did not falter, he grew angry.

''Enough!'' He shouted suddenly, slamming the heel of his scepter to the ground loud enough to draw the attention of everyone in the room, including Natasha. The agents she'd been fighting fell back as Loki stepped down from his throne.

''I will not perform this dance again, Agent Romanoff,'' he snarled at her as he drew slowly to her.

''Give up,'' she suggested simply, and a condescending smile lit his face in response.

He raised his hand and snapped his fingers together. Every agent moved then, some drawing the reformed HYDRA weapons and training them on her, and a few others grabbed her arms from behind and twisted them behind her back.

She grunted as she was forced down to her knees before Loki, and subconsciously she wondered how the others were fairing and if she would be lucky enough for them to stumble upon this room to help her. If they didn't, her fate was in Loki's hands.

* * *

Loki approached her, twisting his scepter in his hand, taunting her. ''I rather like this view.''

''Don't get used to it,'' she hissed between gritted teeth.

''Such fire, even in your predicament,'' he commented. He was in front of her now, and he took her chin in his hand and forced her head back to look at him. When she jerked her face away, he angrily dove his fingers into her hair and took it in his fist, pulling until she cried out and met his eyes. ''But I am of people of ice, little spider. You cannot burn me.''

Her eyes narrowed at him, and even as he began to bring the scepter to her chest, her rage did not falter for even a moment. He kept his eyes trained on hers, though his surprise caused his hand to falter. He drew the scepter away a few inches, his face softening in the slightest.

He found himself drawing closer to her, drawn into her web, drawn into her eyes. And it was only when he felt the jarring contact between his knee and the concrete floor that he seemed to come to. He had fallen to a knee before her, and horrified at himself, he looked to her eyes, expecting to see malice.

But her gaze was soft, her eyebrows drawn together slightly in confusion. Their faces were close to each other now, and he could feel her warm breath brush against his face. It drew his gaze to her lips, and he felt himself drawn in again. She started to move back in surprise, but his hand in her hair kept her in place.

But just before his lips could press to hers, the door behind them crashed open, and the rest of the Avengers spilled through.

* * *

Loki did not rush away from her as most would in their situation, but instead slowly withdrew from her. His hand slipped from her hair and he rose to his full stature, turning to face the others.

''Should we come back?'' Iron Man quipped. ''It looked like you were having a private moment over there with our beautiful Black Widow. Entrancing, isn't she?''

Loki smirked slightly, but it had an edge to it, as if he were embarrassed. ''It is a sticky web she spins,'' he admitted.

Natasha cleared her throat, drawing the attention of Tony and the others.

''Oh, right,'' Tony said, before lifting his hand and sending a blast of power towards Loki.

Loki blocked it with his scepter easily, smiling, and redirected it towards the wall at the back of the room. The agents grabbed as many weapons as they could and spilled out through the hole it formed. The few holding Natasha dropped her arms and evacuated as well.

She sprang for Loki, and her fingers wrapped around his scepter when he used it to block her body from his. He cast her aside easily, and she rolled along the ground until she was at the feet of the other Avengers.

''I will be taking my leave now,'' Loki said, bowing slightly. He tossed his scepter from hand to hand, before using it to blast a hole in the ceiling above their heads. The thick slabs of concrete and metal dropped down towards them, bound to crush them.

Steve grabbed Barton and covered them both with his shield, while Tony and Hulk dove out of the way. Natasha, still on the floor and unable to escape the path of destruction, covered her head and braced for impact, but it never came.

Thor grunted as he took the blunt of the falling debris, standing over her and shielding her body with his, though he managed to block some with the mjolnir.

Before she could thank him, they were on the chase after the agents with the HYDRA weapons. But by the time they managed to catch up with them, they were already vanishing in the distance in a stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel.

* * *

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review!


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

They sat around the newly constructed bar in Stark tower, quiet from their recent defeat. They'd picked up shawarma on the way back to the tower, and they sipped their drinks of choice that Tony had provided from his fully stocked bar as they ate. They were all dressed down, feet bare and in their sleepwear.

Maybe it was due to exhaustion, but the alcohol seemed to seep faster than usual into Natasha's system. It seemed to have that effect on the others too, flushing their cheeks a soft pink. Only Banner refrained from drinking much, out of precaution.

Tony poured Natasha another shot of vodka, and himself a shot of whiskey, and they clinked the glasses together before downing them and scrunching their faces at each other in distaste. They laughed at each other, letting the alcohol soothe them rather than let it rile them.

Others did not have such control.

Clint smashed his glass to the floor in anger at the sound of their laughter.

''Another!'' Thor said, smiling, mistaking Clint's actions and motioning to Tony to pour Clint another drink.

Natasha snorted, and Clint shot her a deadly glare.

''How can you be laughing?'' He shouted angrily at her. ''It's not time to be having fun. We've made zero progress in stopping that bastard!''

''By no fault of mine,'' she said, her amusement gone, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

''And getting angry isn't going to change that,'' Steve interjected, but Clint ignored him.

''No fault of yours? What have you done besides bat your eyes at him? I understand that that's one of your _specialties_, but that doesn't exempt you from part of the blame for our failure as a team!''

Her face grew hot in anger. ''I've been carrying your weight with S.H.I.E.L.D. since what happened a few months ago. Do not imply that it is _me_ who is lacking in our fight against Loki.''

''So what? It's me? I'm lacking?'' he demanded angrily. When she didn't answer, only met his eyes evenly, he grabbed her arm in his hand and yanked her out of her seat roughly. ''Well?''

The next moment his hand was gone, and Steve had Clint's arm while Thor had his fist wrapped in Clint's collar.

''You do not lay a hand on a lady in anger,'' Thor snarled at him.

''She is far from a lady,'' Clint hissed.

Tony shook his head at him, as the others looked to Clint, in shock of his crude words. ''Get out of here,'' Tony said calmly. ''Go get some air.''

Clint's face grew red in anger, his teeth gritting down to suppress his tongue, his body tense to fight. But instead, he only pulled himself out of their grips and stormed from the room.

''Loki really did a number on him,'' Bruce commented after a long pause.

The all bowed their heads slightly in acknowledgement.

''Uhm... Agent Romanoff,'' Steve said timidly. She looked at him and saw that his eyes were not on hers but on the ground. Her eyes along with everyone else's followed his gaze down and to the floor.

Natasha's feet were in the midst of the broken glass on the floor, and blood had formed small pools around each foot. She'd been so distracted by Clint's rage and the alcohol in her system that she hadn't noticed the glass piercing her feet.

She bit back a hiss of pain as she sat back down in her chair.

''Let me-'' Bruce started, reaching towards one of her injured feet. But she brushed his hands away.

''I've got it,'' she snapped. He pulled back, looking embarrassed, and her face softened slightly. ''I'm sorry. It's just not that bad, I can take care of it.''

The others slowly returned to their food and earlier conversations, and when she finished pulling the pieces of glass from her feet, she excused herself and left for her room to bandage them. As the door shut behind her, she heard Tony wonder aloud how he would explain all the blood to the cleaning lady.

Still slightly intoxicated, she swayed slightly as she made her way to her room. Once she was inside, she slipped right into the on-suite bathroom to retrieve the first aid kit. It took her a few moments after she returned to her bedroom to realize she was not alone.

* * *

''To leave your guard down so low is to ask for trouble to find you,'' Loki said, from where he sat on the edge of her bed watching her.

''Apparently, I need not even ask and here you are.''

She tried to sound casual, calm despite his unwarranted presence in her room. But she was unnerved, scared even. She was in no condition to fight him and he knew it.

''Sit down, little spider, I shall not bite tonight,'' he said with a playful smirk. He was enjoying this, watching her falter. He had the scepter in hand, and though he twisted it casually between his fingers, she knew that it was meant to intimidate. And with her so off of her game tonight, it was working.

She walked slowly to the edge of the bed, the furthest away from him she could manage and sat down. She turned her attention away from him daringly, and took to bandaging her foot.

That was a mistake. The next moment, he was right beside her on the bed, and where she thought he meant to hurt her, she was surprised by his actions next.

He moved from the bed to kneel before her, drawing her injured limb into his hands and taking the bandages from her. He did not speak, keeping his eyes lowered to her foot as he cleaned the wounds and applied the bandages to them. They sat in silence for a long time, Natasha too frightened by his proximity and suspicious of his actions to speak.

When he took her other foot in his hand to bandage it as well, he finally spoke. ''Your injuries speak secrets that your lips will not,'' Loki commented.

''Oh?'' she asked, tweeking an eyebrow at him, her expression mocking. She was waiting for something. Some grand manipulation, a surprise attack.

He sneered slightly in distaste, but turned his attention back to her foot before speaking again. ''You only just came upon such injuries, yet the wounds are half closed,'' he stated. ''You are not human. Not completely.''

''I'm still human,'' she said, but the hint of defensiveness in her tone gave away her doubt.

''Come now, little spider. You do not believe such a thing. If you cannot lie to yourself, you cannot lie to me,'' he said, trying to keep an amused smile from his lips. ''Tell me, was it the Red Room that changed you?''

* * *

Natasha tore away from him, not caring if it was dangerous to do so, and clenched her hands into fists at her sides. His hand went to his scepter slowly, and a wave of fear went through her. But she was more concerned with something else. ''How-?''

''The first time I learned of you, I cared only for enough information to unnerve you. But after you bested me twice at my own game,'' he admitted bitterly, ''I knew there was more to know.''

''You read my S.H.I.E.L.D. file,'' she concluded, shaking her head. It made her dizzy, and she pressed her hand to her forehead to stop the room spinning. ''SH.I.E.L.D. doesn't know what happened in the Red Room, only Nick Fury.''

''That is a particularly large hole in your file,'' he agreed. He looked back to the foot he'd been in the middle of bandaging when she had moved away, and the bandages had already unravelled and fell apart. He motioned for her to return, and with his hand on his scepter and her at a disadvantage, she did not refuse him.

She kept her chin raised, suspicious, but slowly sat back down in front of him, letting his cool hands ghost over her foot once again.

''Enlighten me.'' He said it casually, not even looking up at her, but it was not a suggestion.

''Not even those I trust know about the Red Room.''

''Is there in anyone that you actually place your trust, Agent Romanoff?'' he questioned.

She was silent for a long time, and he allowed her to be. He was just finishing the last few parts of the bandages when she spoke.

''The Russian government... they altered me,'' she confessed. ''They tortured me, programmed me, used me. I had no parents. They had full reign on what happened to me, on what I turned out to be.''

''And what is that, Agent Romanoff?''

''The least human that a human can be.''

He looked up at her then, his beautiful green eyes meeting hers. ''You seem very human right now.''

''Are you going to hold it against me?'' she questioned, the words slipping out before she could stop them. She expected to be met with a malicious grin, a pretentious smirk, a condescending remark. Something cruel, something biting, something that would hurt her now while her guard was down.

''No,'' he said, breathily, his eyebrows raising slightly, as if any other response had not even crossed his mind. It was honest, blatantly so, and it made her breath stop in her throat.

The next moments passed by slowly. Loki rose from his knee before her, his eyes still entwined with hers, and he closed the small space between their bodies.

He placed his knee on the bed beside her thigh and towered over her, staring intimately down at her face. He slowly slipped a hand around the back of her neck, dove his fingers into her fire-red locks, and tilted her head back gently to look at him.

Their eyes only broke when he leaned towards her and pressed his lips softly to hers. The kiss was slow, and gentle, and made her dizzy for reasons that had nothing to do with the alcohol.

When he moved away, he turned his back on her to retrieve his scepter. He turned to face her again, twirling it slowly in his hand.

''The next time we meet, as I am sure we will, do not expect such kindness again. It would have been so easy to take you tonight, while you are weak and vulnerable.''

Her eyes narrowed at him from the bed, and he approached her again, this time with threat in each step and his usual smirk in place.

He did not stop until he was in the same position as when they had kissed, except for the hand in her hair, which was replaced by the blade of his scepter. She tensed at the feel of the cold, sharp blade at the back of her neck.

''I expect you at your best,'' he said, his face close to hers. The feel of his breath on her face made a shiver run through her. ''When I take you, Agent Romanoff, I will not have you at any less.''

And then he was gone, and for some strange reason, she felt more alone than ever. After a few moments she decided to blame it on the alcohol, and crawled under her sheets to sleep it off.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was a lot of fun to write. I tried to show that soft side to Loki, and I hope I did it justice. Please review!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

That night, Natasha dreamt of Loki.

When she woke, her fingers traced her lips where his had been the night before, and she wondered then if all of it had just been a ploy to mess with her head. But she knew better than to get distracted by such things either way, and she got up and showered and suited up for the day.

When she got to the kitchen, the others were all there. Clint looked like he had a massive hangover, his eyes red and eyebrows knitted together as if he were in pain. The others seemed to be fairing pretty well, eating the breakfast that Tony had ordered in.

She grabbed one of the breakfast sandwiches and went to sit down. The blood and glass from the night before were still on the floor, and she cast a glance at Clint as she slipped onto her seat.

He was staring at the blood, his face guilty, and that was enough of an apology for her.

She turned to Steve. ''What's the plan, Captain?'' she asked.

''We return to what we were doing before,'' he said, shrugging slightly. ''We have no leads, no idea how Loki intends to go about his plan, so that's really the best we can do.''

''With those weapons, he can turn the whole city against us,'' Bruce said.

''It would take years to turn the whole world against us though,'' Tony commented absentmindedly as he took a large bite out of his breakfast burrito. ''Unless he builds some sort of super machine that can use the power of the Tesseract to take over large masses of people all at... once... What?''

The others were staring at him, dead silent, frozen and wide-eyed.

''Oh jeez,'' he said. ''Do I have something in my teeth?''

Natasha broke her stupor first and rolled her eyes. ''How would he go about doing that?''

''He'd need to collect the materials, though he could recycle them easily enough from his machine from last time if he rescued it from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s evidence department,'' Bruce explained. ''Which he may have already, they are still working on a list of everything that he escaped with.''

''And it would take more than Dr. Selvig to construct it in a limited amount of time,'' he continued. ''So he would need someone else smart enough to... Oh.''

Bruce's words stumbled short, as the realization hit him. ''I guess I should be grateful that he's not going to use me for the _other guy_.''

''Not at first, anyway,'' Clint inserted.

Bruce tried to smile optimistically, but it faltered before it even really began, and instead the resulting twist of his lips was uncomfortable and nervous.

''We can assume from this point forward that Loki will take the offensive,'' Natasha supplied after a few long moments. ''To try and get close enough to Banner to take him over.''

''Should we relocate?'' Steve suggested. ''So that we aren't sitting ducks?''

''That's exactly what we need to be,'' Clint said. He looked to Natasha, and she nodded her agreement.

''My tower...'' Tony uttered, his voice laced with despair.

''As long as the fighting stays in the tower, there will be no civilian casualties,'' Steve said to him, and he groaned but did not argue.

''There is enough blood on my brother's hands,'' Thor rumbled.

They all nodded solemnly, and returned to their food.

* * *

Loki came that night.

Only Bruce was missing from the team when he did, stashed safely away and out of sight until the battle was over. Only Tony knew where, as he was the only one who could not be taken under Loki's control and forced an answer from.

They waited at the top of the tower for his army to come, but when only Loki stepped out onto the roof before them, their eyes wandered suspiciously around in fear of an ambush.

''Where is your army?'' Tony asked.

Loki smiled, playing with the scepter in his hand. ''They are here.''

''Didn't you learn from last time that no army of yours can defeat us?'' Tony asked rhetorically, without doubt.

Loki was unfazed by his confidence. He took a slow step forward, relishing as they all tensed to fight. ''Last time you had a Hulk.''

They were all slightly taken aback by this.

''That was your plan all along. Not to use Banner, but to get him out of the way,'' Steve said.

''And we played right into it!'' Clint growled in anger.

''No, you were quite right about me coming here for Dr. Banner. Down to very last detail. I was quite impressed,'' he said with raised eyebrows, though his tone betrayed that he was everything but.

''How would you...?'' Steve began, confused.

Loki's eyes sought Natasha's as he reached up and produced something from inside of his ear, tossing it down at the feet of the Avengers.

An earpiece.

''Thank you for your cooperation last night, Agent Romanoff,'' Loki said mockingly, drawing each word out slowly, trying to keep the satisfied smile from his face.

Her eyes widened slightly, and her hand flew to her ear, seeking her earpiece. Of course, her hand came back empty.

The others looked at her, eyes angry and confused and questioning.

''Did you not tell them?'' Loki asked, smiling mischievously. ''That I was in your bedroom last night.''

She ignored the others, narrowing her eyes at him. ''So you have bested me once, Loki. I have bested you twice.''

He smiled at her then, and it was full of malice. But there was something else there, a spark of fire in the Frost Giant's eyes.

''The night is young.''

* * *

They only heard the agents' footsteps when they were a few feet away. They were trained by S.H.I.E.L.D. after all, an agency defined by its ability to stay off of the radar. Their guns were trained on the Avengers, trapping them on all sides.

''Thank you for divulging the location of Dr. Banner to me, Mr. Stark. I think I will pay him a visit,'' Loki said with a smirk.

Steve frowned and looked to Tony. ''But you were alone when you put Banner away, why would you have said the location aloud?''

''He likes hearing the sound of his own voice,'' Natasha supplied dryly.

''That he does,'' Clint agreed.

''I don't recall being the one who gave him the earpiece in the first place,'' Tony reminded Natasha.

''Enough!'' Steve commanded, and their bickering fell silent. ''We have more pressing issues at the moment.''

Their gazes turned to the army surrounding them once again. Loki's eyes scanned over them once, outnumbered and defiant as they were, and motioned towards the Avengers with his scepter, a signal for his army to attack.

When they did, Natasha caught sight of Loki turning away and disappearing into the dark recesses of the tower.

With the others too preoccupied to notice, Natasha followed.

* * *

Author's Note: This chapter was far less exciting than the last to write, and probably to read as well. But the next one should make up for it. Please continue reading, and reviewing!


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Loki did not make it easy to follow him, but she hadn't expected him to.

He was not aware of who had made it past the mayhem on the roof fast enough to have him in their sight, but he should have known. She was trained for such a thing after all, to escape sticky situations. She would not be the Black Widow if she got trapped in the webs of chaos so easily.

And he would not be known as the God of Mischief if he were to be followed without implementing some element of trickery to put it to an end.

He took his time descending through the tower, toying with her as he did. But Natasha had fallen for his projections before, and she would not fall fool to them twice.

It only took her a few seconds each time to figure out whether or not she was following a projection, and though it slowed her progress, she never lost sight of the real Loki. But he seemed unfazed by how easily she surpassed his manipulations, and she figured he was only using them to keep her at a safe distance until he reached his destination.

When finally he stopped in front of a door at the end of an intricate maze of corridors, she knew that was where Banner was being safely stored away. They were several floors below the surface street, deep beneath the tower.

With the power of the Tesseract in his scepter, he blasted a hole through the door and entered the room. She followed him blatantly inside, not caring to hide her presence any longer.

At the center of the room was a containment cell, much like the one that had been on the helicarrier. Only this cell was much larger, and the bright white of the chamber was the only source of light in the room.

Bruce stood at the edge of the cell, brought to attention by the explosion. His eyes widened when he saw Loki, but then relaxed again when he saw Natasha in the makeshift doorway behind him.

* * *

Loki turned to face Natasha, and she tensed to fight. ''It is always you, Agent Romanoff.''

He took a step toward her, but when she stepped back in response he stopped. ''Is it because the other Avengers trust that I will fall at your hands? Or is it because you are ever the only one foolish enough to follow me?'' he questioned tauntingly, raising his eyebrows.

She didn't answer.

''You are expendable, aren't you?'' he said with a smirk. ''I doubt you were the sole product of the Red Room. To put all of their faith into you would have been a grave mistake on their part.''

''Aren't you expendable as well?'' she questioned suddenly, trying to stop his words from seeping into her, turning them to him instead. ''Second son to Odin.''

''Hold your tongue, wretch,'' he warned, his face gone serious as he took a step forward, dangerously close.

But she did not back down. ''Odin had Thor. You were nothing more than a trophy of war, a pawn to be played by your father against the Frost Giants, destined from birth to fall short of your brother-''

He struck her then, casting her to the ground. Before she could recover, he grabbed her by her collar and lifted her from the floor, tossing her across the room and into the wall as if she weighed no more than a feather.

''You do not speak of that which you do not know!'' he yelled at her, and when she caught sight of him, she was surprised to see his eyes were glazed with tears despite the fury evident on his face.

He lifted her up, slamming her against the wall again but holding her there in place by her shoulders with the side of his free arm. His anger was rampant, and the heat of it was radiating off of his body. He was too close, too intimately close, and she feared she would melt from the intensity of it.

But the next moment she was flooded with cool, as his hand dove sharply into her hair and he pressed his mouth roughly to hers.

It was not gentle like the night before, but angry and passionate and vicious. He tore at her hair as his silver tongue slipped into her mouth and forced her submission.

She tried to continue their fight, but he would not let her mouth from his, brushing her hands aside as she fought him and tighening his grip on her. He was rough, and angry, taking his frustration with her out on her mouth. He dropped his scepter from his hand to free it, pressing her harder back into the wall.

And it was only when she started to return the kiss, the fingers of her hand curling into a fist around an edge of his shirt to draw him closer, that they were interrupted.

Bruce cleared his throat across the room, bringing them immediately back to the present and aware of the fact that they were not alone.

As Loki moved a fraction away, she saw the tears on his face, the pain in his eyes from reliving the awful truths that she had spoken.

But when the door opened and a flood of agents spilled into the room, followed immediately by the rest of the Avengers, his satisfied smirk returned to its usual place on his face.

He cast one last glance to her, his smirk faltering slightly when he met her eyes, but he suppressed whatever he felt in that moment and cast her aside. She fell into the hands of a few of the agents, and she was quick to join the chaos once again.

When Loki approached the chamber, it was Thor who followed him instead of Natasha.

''Brother-''

But Loki was not in the mood to hear his brother's pleas. Thor raised the mjolnir just in time to block a blow from Loki's scepter. Thor lifted his knee to his chest and kicked his brother away. Loki's back slammed into the glass of the cell, hard enough for it to crack beneath the blow.

''I do not wish to hurt you any further-''

Loki hooked his scepter around Thor's ankles and knocked him off of his feet. Loki recovered faster than his brother, the benefit of being more lithe and agile, and planted his scepter on the ground. He swung around it, catching Thor in the chest with his heels just as he pulled himself up from the ground, knocking him back to the floor.

Thor was instantly swarmed by a group of agents, and Loki turned his attention back to the cell.

Inside, Bruce was about to lose control of his other self, writhing on the ground as his body began to morph and change color.

Loki was quick to get inside the cell, knowing his chances would fair better with the doctor than with the beast. He passed on trying to decipher Tony's code to unlock the chamber, and instead slipped the tip of his scepter into the crack his body had formed in the glass, and blasted it apart.

The glass shattered and fell to the ground, the sound deafening and drawing the immediate attention of everyone in the room. The Avenger's acted immediately, rushing for the chamber, but they could not make it past all of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents before Loki pressed his scepter to Banner's chest.

''Oh, the heart you have,'' Loki whispered, his eyebrows raising, just before Banner's eyes began to glow a brilliant blue.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I love writing scenes with Loki and Natasha. It's hard when I am trying to space it out into a natural progression, but I try and have fun with it when I get the chance. Please review!


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Bruce Banner's eyes may have been blue, but the Hulk's eyes were unchanged.

Loki's eyes widened when the man morphed before him, and- reminded of what had happened last time he'd come face to face with the beast- he was quick to make his escape.

The last thing anyone remembered before the world went black, was Loki aiming his scepter to the sky above the Avengers' heads. With everyone locked in the battle below, there was no time to escape the falling debris.

The only two left standing fled, with the Hulk right at Loki's heels.

* * *

Natasha coughed as she came to, and she brought her hand up to cover her mouth to keep from inhaling any more of the debris that covered the floor around her. When she tried to move, a sharp pain in her leg made her stop, and she found it was trapped beneath a slab of concrete. A few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were unconscious around her, some she feared were dead.

Her eyes scanned the room, searching for her fellow Avengers.

She saw the black and purple of Clint's uniform, but he lay still beneath a metal beam. Thor was rising from a pile of debris a few feet away, using the mjolnir to move the wreckage free of the agents around him as well. Steve was standing slowly beside her, favoring certain parts of his body as he did so.

She heard a loud commotion across the room and found Tony to be the source, angrily shoving aside concrete and metal to free himself, cursing loudly. ''That was a complete disaster!''

''At least Loki doesn't have Banner,'' Steve remarked optimistically.

''Yeah, well, neither do we,'' Tony replied back with a bite. When Steve's expression faltered, it dampened Tony's anger.

Natasha forced herself up onto her elbows, unable to rise any further. Steve went to lift the beam from Natasha's leg, but in return clutched his side in pain as the broken bones of his rib cage stabbed him for the action.

Tony walked over and knelt beside Natasha, brushing the beam aside and lifting her up into his metal arms.

''Tony, I can-''

''Just shut up and let someone help you for once,'' Tony snapped at her, his temper flaring for just a moment before cooling again. He walked her into the broken containment cell and set her down on the bench there, before going to help Thor rescue the agents still trapped in the debris.

After a while, some of them started to wake, while others would never wake again.

Steve sat at the edge of the room, by the fallen agents, his head in his hand.

They waited until everyone regained consciousness before leaving the wreckage behind and returning to the upper level of the tower.

There were sixteen agents left behind and left alive, while four lay to rest in the basement. They sat in silence with the Avengers, their eyes tired and faces solemn, sipping the tea that Tony had prepared for them and letting Natasha tend to their injuries.

After a while, a few of them spoke, recounting the acts they had committed. Some were angry. Some cried.

Steve stopped them after a while, when it became too painful to hear.

Fury sent a small aircraft to pick them up a short while later, as well as the bodies of the agents that had fallen victim to the battle. When they were gone, the Avengers retreated into their private rooms to rest.

* * *

Banner returned the next day, with no recollection of how he had gotten there. He'd woken up on the front steps of Stark tower, and he could only surmise that Hulk had returned after losing track of Loki during his chase.

The others looked immediately away when he walked in, and Natasha rolled her eyes at them before handing Bruce the blanket off of the back of the couch she'd been lounging on to cover up.

He sheepishly accepted and left the room to put on some clothes.

Recalling the events of the night before, she left the room after him. She was waiting for him outside of his room when he finished changing, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and head down.

''Bruce, about what happened with Loki, him kissing me-''

''I'm not going to tell them,'' He supplied tentatively, and she looked up to meet his eyes, surprised. ''If that's what you were wondering.''

She stared at him for a few moments, studying him, trying to understand his motivation. ''Why would you not tell them?''

But he shrugged, and it was innocent. There were no manipulations, no hidden motives, and the tension in her body dissipated. ''You seemed to be as confused by it as I was.''

She didn't say anything, just looked to the floor.

He excused himself politely, albeit awkwardly, leaving her to her thoughts. Natasha sank to the floor, leaning back against the wall, and stared at her hands limp in her lap.

Neither she nor Bruce were aware of a third pair of ears that had listened in on their conversation.

* * *

''What do you think his next move will be?'' Bruce asked a few minutes later, after they had assembled in the living room to talk. ''Now that he knows he can't use Tony or me to help him construct his machine?''

''Where is Erik Selvig?'' Steve inquired.

''He was relocated by...'' Clint started hesitantly, before trailing off.

''S.H.I.E.L.D..'' Natasha finished gravely. ''At least one of the agents still with Loki will know his location.''

Thor tensed and leapt to his feet, his hands clenched to fists at his sides. ''Jane accompanied him. We must go to their side at once!''

''Do we know for sure he is even going after them?'' Clint asked skeptically. ''Before we go running off to the middle of nowhere and leave our guard down here.''

''It's Loki,'' Tony answered simply. ''Even if he does not intend to use Erik Selvig, that's where he will be headed.''

''For Jane,'' Thor concluded, with anger in his tone.

''Loki's angry,'' Bruce supplied. ''He's aiming to hurt.''

''If there is a monster in Thor, as Loki believes there is one in all of us, Jane is the trigger to unleash it,'' Natasha stated softly.

Thor's head fell, his anger gone, and his face twisted with worry. Steve put a comforting hand on the God of Thunder's arm.

They left a short while later, taking to the sky in a jet Director Fury provided. And given the hard expression on Thor's face as they cut through the sky, for Loki's sake they hoped he had not yet gotten to Jane.

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry, it's a little short today. I hope it's a small sacrifice to pay since I am updating this daily, and that you can forgive me for it. Hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. Please review!


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

As soon as the plane landed, Thor took off using his mjolnir, with Tony close at his heels. The others piled in the car that was waiting for them, and sped down the dust road that passed through the vast wheat fields of Kansas, to the remote location that the scientists had been relocated to.

They pulled up to what looked like a rotting, abandoned shack and got out of the car. Just inside, the hideaway door in the floor had been torn clear off- presumably by Thor- and they were quick to descend down.

The basement was constructed to house the scientists for years. There were ample resources to sustain them, and space was provided for their equipment as well as any other necessities to keep them content. They'd been moved there right after Loki had returned.

As they descended the stairs, they found Thor and Loki locked in a vicious battle. Tony was nowhere to be seen.

Just as they reached the final step, Loki knocked Thor backwards and straight toward them, and they quickly spilled over the railing on either side to avoid being crushed.

Thor sat up slowly, and they moved to stand at his sides, all facing Loki before them.

He was breathing heavily, and he reached up to wipe just the slightest hint of sweat from his brow. He was clenching his scepter so tightly that his knuckles were a bright white.

''He has already gotten to Jane,'' Thor rumbled gravely.

As if on cue the beautiful scientist entered the room, led by Erik Selvig's hand on her arm, her eyes glowing blue. He moved her to stand beside Loki, before taking up position at his other side as well.

A commotion drew the attention of the Avengers, and Tony slowly emerged from a hallway behind them, the suit clanging noisily as he did. His suit was beaten and worn from a fight, and it was evident that he was suffering from a concussion by the way he moved.

After he came to a stop at Steve's side, he raised his hand toward Loki. Though he swayed slightly, his hand remained steady.

''That would not be wise,'' Loki stated menacingly. He stared at Thor as he brought his hand up around Jane's shoulders and moved her in front of himself in one swift movement.

He brought the blade of his scepter to her throat, and she stood there with no reaction, just staring blankly forward like a doll.

''What did you do to her?'' Clint asked, his brow furrowing.

''I broke her,'' Loki answered with a smirk.

* * *

Thor charged forward with an anguished cry, but Steve and Bruce grabbed his arms to stop him. Loki's grip on Jane's shoulder tensed and the blade made a dent in her skin, so near to breaking it.

''Take it back! Take it back this instant!'' Thor demanded, though it sounded more like a plea. Natasha had expected him to be angry, furious, but the pain in his voice overpowered anything else he may have been feeling.

He pulled his arms free of the others, and fell to his knees at Loki's feet.

They expected Loki to look satisfied, to smile in the face of his brother's weakness at that moment. But he frowned, and his face twisted slowly in anger. ''Get up, brother.''

Thor said nothing, just lowered his gaze to the floor.

''Take her back from me,'' Loki said, his voice rising.

Thor remained in place.

''Get! Up!'' Loki screamed at him.

Around Natasha, the others moved back slightly in surprise, but neither her nor Thor reacted externally. Natasha's chest tightened, her eyes flickering over Loki's face as he stared down in despair at his brother on his knees, watching his eyes well with tears.

Loki tossed Jane aside, to Erik Selvig, and advanced across the room quickly. He reached down and grabbed a handful of Thor's cape, forcing him to look up at him.

''This isn't how it's supposed to happen!'' Loki said, his voice still raised slightly. ''I have anticipated the day you would fall to your knees before me, ever since we were children. To prove to you and to everyone that you are not superior to me.''

''But to have my victory from this would be unsatisfying.''

He released his grip on Thor as if he had burned him, and went back to the scientists, taking Jane from Erik Selvig and tossing her to the ground in front of Thor. His eyes widened in surprise, but he was quick to scoop her into his arms.

''The day will come when you fall before me because you have met your _equal_,'' Loki growled. He turned his back to Thor, but looked over his shoulder to speak again.

''Unfortunately, today is not that day.''

The next moment, Loki disappeared with Erik Selvig, leaving them alone in the hideout with the unresponsive Jane.

Steve and Bruce helped the injured Tony to the car, and Clint and Natasha walked at Thor's side as he slowly lifted Jane and followed the others outside.

* * *

When they returned, Clint and Natasha disappeared in a room with Jane to do what they knew Thor would not, and returned with her limp and unconscious in Clint's arms.

Thor took her from them and went to his room to wait for her to wake.

The others went silently to their own rooms as well, and though for some it had not been an especially hard day, it weighed heavy on all of their shoulders.

For a long time, Natasha lay in her bed staring at her ceiling. Her mind endlessly replayed the events of the day in her head, and she kept stalling on Loki's anguished face, his eyes glazed with tears of anger.

It took her a while to come out of her mind enough to realize that she was not alone in the room. She did not feel the shift at the end of her bed from another's weight as it came to rest there. Only when she had gotten frustrated enough with herself and rose to leave her bed did she become aware.

''For some reason,'' Loki said slowly, keeping his back to her despite the weapon that was now aimed at it. ''I find myself here once again.''

''Why are you here?'' she demanded, staring down the body of the gun at him.

''I do not know,'' he admitted in a whisper.

Despite her heart beating rapidly in her chest and the fear that made her body tremble beneath her sheets, she slowly lowered the weapon to her lap. His scepter rested on the bed beside him, close enough that he could draw it if she were to attack, but not in hand to appear less threatening.

He sat there silently for a long time, before finally speaking.

''You spoke of manipulation when we last were here,'' he said softly. ''Of what Russia had done to you.''

He paused for a moment, as if finding the next words difficult to say. She wished she could see his face, confused as she was she hoped it would give her answers. But she was too afraid to move, too afraid to break the moment.

''When you found out... What did you feel?'' he asked her.

''Like a fool,'' she answered without thinking, the words spilling from her lips. She stared down at her hands in her lap, her past playing before her eyes, her ghosts coming back to haunt her.

His head lowered slightly as if to nod in agreement, but he did not raise it again.

She shook her head to clear it, looking back up at Loki. ''But Thor didn't know you weren't really Odinson,'' she stated.

''He knew I was different,'' Loki countered. ''He used it against me. It does not matter that he knew not of my real parentage, that I am Laufeyson.''

She didn't say anything, and her heart ached when she noticed Loki's shoulders trembling beneath his armor.

''I killed Laufey. I killed all of Jotunheim for Odin,'' he said quietly. ''I would have been king if I had not been taken from them. Instead I was raised in Asgard with false hope of such a thing, an aspiration I had no chance of obtaining. Odin would never put a Frost Giant on the throne.''

Loki slowly lowered his face to his hands. ''When I found out, it confirmed everything that I had ever feared. Every suspicion, every nagging thought at the back of my mind, every nightmare that woke me in the middle of the night.''

''Why are you telling me all of this?'' she asked softly.

''I thought that of all the people in this forsaken place, you would be the one to understand,'' he said honestly. He chuckled slightly at himself, and for once it was not menacing or frightening or chilling to the bone. It was weak, it was human.

''Do you think me a fool, Agent Romanoff?'' he asked her.

''No,'' she breathed.

The next moment, she crossed the short distance of the bed to him. She reached her hand around and turned his face towards hers, pressing her mouth to his.

* * *

Author's Note: I meant to update yesterday, but I was sick and didn't have a chance to write. But I hope this chapter was worth the wait. Please review!


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Loki tensed beneath Natasha's hand in surprise, his own going to his scepter automatically. But after a moment he released it, bringing his hand up to cradle the back of her neck instead as she kissed him. His other hand reached up to grip her waist as he returned the kiss, pulling her closer to his body.

He twisted her around and onto his lap and deepened the kiss, and her hands gripped the fabric at his chest in response. They stayed like that for a long time, until Natasha's eyes grew heavy and he laid her down to rest.

When he moved to leave, he cast one glance back at the dangerous woman that lay fast asleep on the bed behind him. She was shivering from the cold of the room, but he did not want to wake her to move her back beneath her bed coverings. Instead, he removed his outer coat and laid it over her, and watched her curl into it for warmth.

He retrieved his scepter, and a moment later disappeared.

* * *

When Natasha woke, her hands clenched around the edge of Loki's coat, and when it turned to smoke beneath her fingers, she wondered in her haze of sleep if it had even been there at all.

She changed into her uniform and found the others already awake and in the living room.

Tony looked worse for wear, though the stubborn man he was he refused to show it. There was heavy bruising around his temple where the helmet had been dented in, and various other bruises decorating his body for the same reason.

Jane Foster was sitting beside Thor on one of the couches, and he had her hand held between both of his. He gave it a comforting squeeze, and she looked to him and smiled softly.

Any small conversations that had been going died when Natasha entered the room. Everyone turned to look at her, all with varying emotions on their faces, though none were pleasant.

''What?'' she demanded, narrowing her eyes at them.

''Care to explain this?'' Tony asked her, before sending a folded paper plane her away.

She snatched it out of the air, unfolding it roughly to reveal its content.

It was a still from a security camera, dated and timed the night before. It was a picture of her and Loki together, locked in an intimate kiss.

''Why do you have a camera in my room?'' she demanded.

''I installed one in every room after it came to my attention that Loki had managed to get past my system once already. I had Jarvis set for facial recognition, before you get on me about privacy and not respecting boundaries,'' he explained quickly.

''You can imagine my surprise when Jarvis woke me up, and I found this waiting for me.''

''If you knew he was there, why didn't you confront him?'' she questioned.

His silence was her answer.

''I won't,'' she said, her eyes narrowing further at him.

''It's your specific skill set,'' he reminded her.

''But Loki is a god,'' she argued. ''The chances of that working and me not ending up like Agent Coulson are slim to none.''

''Your wiles almost worked on me,'' he reminded her.

''You aren't a god,'' she countered.

''I have been called one many times,'' he said with an arrogant smirk.

She just frowned at him, before turning to the others. ''You all agree with this?''

''There are varying stances on the subject,'' Steve said carefully.

''Was this a fluke?'' Tony asked her. ''A one time deal? Because if he's not going to put his guard down for you again, there is no reason for us to take the risk.''

Natasha opened her mouth to lie, but shut it again and did not respond.

''Frost Giant got your tongue?'' Clint asked darkly. He looked to Tony, ''It's happened before. I overheard her talking about it with Banner. He can back me up-''

''Keep me out of this,'' Banner interjected meekly.

''Then let's put it to a vote,'' Tony decided firmly, but Steve stepped up to the plate to take control instead.

''We know your position, Stark, and we know Natasha's,'' Steve stated. ''We can put it to a vote, but ultimately the decision is mine to make as the leader of the Avengers. But I am willing to hear everyone out prior to making it.''

''I think Tony is right,'' Bruce said, casting his opinion into the mix. He looked at Natasha. ''I am sorry Agent Romanoff, but from what I saw, it's too good of an opportunity to pass on.''

''My brother sees his entire life as nothing but a lie,'' Thor rumbled. ''If he is to be betrayed by the one person he has sought comfort in, I fear he will go to a place inside from which he can never return.''

''Is that really a concern at this point?'' Clint demanded. ''He's already gone too far.''

''Do not throw rocks in glass houses,'' Natasha warned Clint.

''This is different!'' Clint insisted.

''How so?'' Natasha asked with narrowed eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but words failed him.

''What is stopping you, Tasha?'' Tony asked her. ''If you are worried about hurting Reindeer Games' feelings, saving the world from enslavement seems a little more important.''

He reached forward and put his hand on her arm. ''You're a master of manipulation. You _have_ to be able to see that he is manipulating you.''

''What do you call what you are doing?'' she returned, removing his hand from her arm. ''You know that if I am told to do this, I will not refuse. You know I will do anything to clean the red from my ledger.''

''Tasha-''

''Alright, I've heard enough,'' Steve interrupted.

He crossed his arms over his chest, and took a few moments to gather this thoughts before speaking. ''What Thor has been trying to get us to understand, is that somewhere deep in Loki is good. Even if it is only a slight possibility that Loki is exposing that side of himself to Natasha, we would be fools not to take advantage of that weakness.''

Natasha shook her head, and Thor's fell in defeat.

''However,'' Steve continued, and Natasha looked to him in surprise. ''Natasha is right, it's barely more than a suicide mission. I will only make the call if we have no other options.''

Tony scoffed but did not argue, and with no other objections, Steve looked to Natasha. ''But I expect, if you get the opportunity before it reaches that point, that you will take it.''

Before Natasha could answer, the television in Tony's living room sprang to life, and Nick Fury stared down at them from the screen.

''Avengers, we have Loki's location.''

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry if this chapter wasn't the greatest, I have been distracted by the batch of Loki comics that just came in the mail. And I have had a little writer's block with where to take this story, since I am writing it day by day. Usually I let it take me wherever feels natural, but lately that method has been failing me. The chapters might come a little more slowly, like every other day or so. Between work and getting everything ready for Comic-Con I don't have a lot of free time. But nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

''During the construction of Loki's machine, there was an accident,'' Director Fury explained. ''One of our agents was knocked unconscious, and woke long enough to get a message to me before Loki... disposed of him.''

''So he'll know we're coming,'' Steve stated.

''Or he'll be gone by the time we get there,'' Tony remarked dryly.

''We have eyes on the location,'' Director Fury continued. ''There has been no movement.''

In the next few minutes, they were on board a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter, sailing through the sky toward the outskirts of New York City. Thor and Tony stayed with them instead of flying ahead, wanting to provide a united front despite the turmoil within the group.

When they landed, they spilled out of the helicopter and towards the church that Loki had taken refuge in. Steve had been angry when he'd found out the location, and shook his head again in disapproval as they approached the structure.

There were civilian vehicles in every space of the parking lot, and they surmised that none of them had made it out of the building after Loki had entered.

They split up before they reached the grand doors at the front of the building, Thor and Stark moving to the rear after dropping Clint to the open steeple. Natasha and Bruce stayed behind and flanked Steve as he pushed open the doors.

The light spilled inside from the sun at their backs, and cast their shadows all along the floor to the base of the minister's podium, where Loki perched, smirking.

The benches were filled with the people of the congregation, all sitting and staring forward as if they were listening to the sermon. There was no movement, and it was eerily silent except for their footsteps as they padded slowly inside. When even the children did not stir, they knew something was wrong.

Loki moved from the podium in one swift, graceful movement, turning his back to them to stand in front of the altar. He turned his gaze up, to the man on the cross, then turned back to look at them, now stopped at the center of the room.

Banner was bent at the waist, looking into the face of one of the church members, checking his vital signs. He was not dead, but he was unresponsive to all stimulation. Natasha and Steve did not risk taking their eyes from the God of Mischief.

Loki put his hands on the podium, but the slightest flickering gave him away.

''That's not Loki,'' Natasha said, spinning just in time to see the doors slam shut behind them.

* * *

Loki smiled at her from before the doors, and his hand moved to hover over the handles. The metal whined as ice formed over it, and Loki's hand remained blue for a few moments before resuming its usual camouflage.

He blinked the red from his eyes, and a smile flickered on his lips when he noticed their obvious tension.

''You are of the faith, Captain?'' Loki drawled, his eyes moving from Natasha to Steve.

''I am,'' Steve said without hesitation.

Loki chuckled softly at his response, and it sent shivers up each of their spines. ''Steve Rogers... Captain America... The symbol of justice... and righteousness...'' He took a dramatic pause between each line, and a slow step nearer with each as well.

''And a prime example of the stubbornness of the humans of Midgard,'' Loki sneered.

Steve rose his chin in response, and his jaw clenched in anger.

Loki's eyes narrowed before he continued. ''You pray to a god that is not there to listen, begging for answers and truths and words of wisdom. You clutch to the words of a book written by liars as if it were spouting water for your thirsting throats.''

''And when you have a real god standing before you, you refuse to acknowledge me as such because I am not your _false_ god,'' Loki growled condescendingly.

He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment to cool, before opening them again. ''I only wish to restore your people to their greatness, to their most worth, and I will do so as your king. Under my rule, they will know the answers and truths that they seek.''

''But not freedom,'' Steve said, his hand tightening on his shield.

''No, not freedom,'' Loki breathed, his eyebrows raising slightly.

''You wonder why we refuse to accept you,'' Steve countered. ''Maybe we just want to believe that there is a better god out there for us than you.''

Loki's jaw clenched tightly, and a series of projections formed around him the next moment. All of their mouths moved as he spoke, and they spread about the room.

''I am the god you _deserve_.''

Suddenly, each of the projections were attacking, dissipating when they would come in contact with the Avengers. When the real Loki finally made contact- at the point when the Avengers became discouraged and satisfyingly off of their guard- it was a blow from which they would not recover easily.

Thor and Tony and Clint all burst into the room to join them, their arrival having been slowed by their encounters with the army of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that Loki still had at his disposal. They came to a stop at the edges of the room, their chests heaving from the exhaustion and the exertion of their battles.

Their arrival was parallel to Loki's small victory, their eyes widening in horror as Loki pressed the tip of his scepter to Steve's chest.

* * *

Every effort made to stop it was in vain or too late.

The blue had already seeped into Steve's eyes when Natasha knocked the scepter aside with her boot. Loki cast her aside easily, but she caught herself on the edge of one of the benches to stop herself from falling to the ground.

Banner began to change beside her, his body cracking and reforming and changing color.

Loki cracked the end of his scepter against the ground, and all at once every member of the civilian congregation stood and turned to face the Avengers.

''Banner, no!'' Clint cried out. If Loki turned the civilians against them, Hulk would destroy them.

But Bruce was too far gone to revert, and his eyes were horrified as his body was taken over more and more by the beast.

''Get out of here!'' Tony yelled.

Loki shifted only slightly to the side with a smirk to let the beast pass him, and the Hulk smashed through the doors at the front of the room and disappeared.

Loki's eyes flickered to each of the Avengers in turn, lingering slightly on Natasha before smiling. He cracked the end of his scepter on the floor again, and Steve moved to stand at his side. The agents that remained intact from their battles with the Avengers a few moments before spilled into the room and gathered at his back.

''Shall we?''

* * *

Author's Note: I realize... Loki's dialogue is both my favorite and the most challenging part of writing this story. It's a double edged sword I suppose. On another note, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Natasha cried out when her back came into contact with the altar at the back of the room, and she fell to the floor in a pile of cracked wood and candles. The wood caught fire, and she was quick to roll away as it lit beneath her. Steve was upon her a moment later, lifting her up into the air by her collar.

She landed a swift kick to his chest, knocking him back and forcing him to release her. She flipped herself back to her feet in a flash and advanced towards him. When she launched herself at him, he lifted his shield to block her, and used her momentum to project her across the room.

If the floor had been clear she'd have landed on her feet, but instead she fell into a group of awaiting agents. She was quick to dispose of them, leaving their unconscious bodies in her wake in only a few short moments, before moving towards Steve once again.

She was quick to abandon her destination when she saw Clint land an arrow on the Captain's shield, to avoid the explosion that happened a few seconds later. Steve was blown backwards and onto the ground, and he quickly made to put out the fires that had caught on his suit.

Thor and Loki were at it again, but their words were lost to the blasts of the HYDRA weapons and the sounds of the battle around them. From their expressions, Natasha could only guess at what was being said between them.

Tony was trying his best to keep the civilians out of harms way, but with them trying to join the battle against the Avengers there were bound to be casualties.

''Agent Romanoff,'' came Nick Fury's voice over her communication, and she ducked around a bench and out of the way of the fight.

''Go ahead,'' she said breathlessly.

''Selvig, the other scientists, and a handful of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are moving their equipment out the back. The agents we had outside were... unsuccessful in stopping them,'' Nick Fury explained.

''Shut it down, Agent Romanoff,'' Nick Fury ordered, before cutting their line.

She rolled out from her hiding place just in time to avoid a blast from one of the HYDRA weapons, and was quick to evade the battles that would slow her new mission.

She ran from the main room, through the few other rooms between her and the back exit without any problems, and then silently slipped through the door there and outside.

Before she'd even made it halfway across the back lot to where the scientists were loading their machine into the back of a S.H.I.E.L.D. cargo transporter, she heard footsteps in the gravel at her back.

She ducked and spun around in time to avoid being struck by Steve's shield, but the unprecedented movement made her off balance, and she could not recover in time to avoid the awaiting hands of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that surrounded her the next moment.

They dragged her back inside, writhing in their grips, but managed to keep a hold on her despite her efforts. She found the others had been compromised as well, all on their knees and lined up in a row- with the exception of Banner and Thor, who was still locked in battle with his brother.

They roughly forced her to her knees beside Tony and held her in place. She started to look towards him, but one of the agents used a hand in her hair to force her gaze forward again.

''How did they...?'' she asked Tony through gritted teeth.

''I can't use the Iron Man suit in here with all of the civilians,'' Tony explained. ''Whenever I tried hand-on-hand combat, they would surround me like sheep and get in the way. One time while I was distracted, one of the agents cut some of my power lines and I had to shut down to avoid malfunctioning. S.H.I.E.L.D. must have some of the rough blueprints on file for this suit.''

Natasha nodded in understanding, and hissed at the pain in her scalp from the movement.

Loki spared a glance over to them, and when he saw Natasha had joined the others, he knocked his brother back a few paces and pointed his scepter in their direction.

''All of your allies have fallen, brother,'' Loki exclaimed, smiling.

Thor hesitated, and the hand holding the mjolnir faltered.

Loki took advantage of his brother's hesitation and crossed the room to where the others were being restrained. He moved to stand before Clint, who was glaring up at him with a face red in anger.

Loki's face was neutral as he pressed the tip of his scepter to Clint's chest.

''Loki-!'' Thor rumbled, but the God of Mischief held up his hand to stop his brother as he advanced toward him.

''One more step and it goes through his heart.''

Thor stopped cold in his tracks, not wanting any harm to befall the archer.

But ever the trickster, Loki plunged the blade into Clint's chest anyway.

* * *

It wasn't deep, and Loki missed the heart as to keep his word.

''No!'' Natasha screamed, her cries joining with the others to resound off of the high ceilings until the room fell completely silent.

Clint cried out when the blade first pierced, and again when Loki pulled it free. Blood spilled to the floor, and Clint gasped in pain. The agents holding him let him fall to the floor to bleed.

Natasha wrenched free of the agents holding her, and scrambled across the floor to her fallen friend. She pressed her hands to his chest, trying to stall the bleeding. His eyes were glazed over in shock, but he remained conscious.

Thor shoved past his brother and went to join her at the side of the archer. The agents and civilians around them began to move away, leaving out the doors at Loki's back to join the others with the machine and escape.

Loki was the last to leave, and his eyes lingered on the scene of the Avengers huddled around their fallen comrade before turning his back to them.

He didn't hear her get up and cross the room, only the shouts after her from the others. He felt her fists pounding into his back in anger, and he turned to catch her wrists in his hands.

Loki watched Natasha with a neutral expression as she struggled in his grip. Her face was angry and clear of tears, but they were brimming on the edges and ready to fall any moment.

''You forget my nature, Agent Romanoff,'' he said. He pushed her back with her wrists and released them, but was forced to capture them once again in his hands when her violence persisted. He grew frustrated, and pulled her in close, his grip tightening painfully.

''Did you think me capable of any less?'' he snarled at her. ''Did you think me soft?''

Her eyes narrowed, and she stopped struggling against him suddenly. ''Then kill me right now, Loki _Laufeyson_. If you are not soft.''

He pushed her back roughly, stricken by her words, shock and anger evident on his face. But he recovered quickly, and closed his eyes for a moment to compose himself. ''I warned you once that it would be this way. That I would make you last, to see them all fall before you. I am only keeping my word.''

''It doesn't have to be this way,'' she pleaded angrily.

''But it does, my dear,'' he said to her softly, condescendingly.

''You will reach a point when it is time for someone to come along and rescue you from yourself, as the man you just stabbed did for me,'' she hissed.

''If I am to ever reach that point, it is not at this moment in time,'' he said dismissively, disgarding her on the floor and turning his back to her.

''Tread lightly, Loki,'' she warned as she picked herself up slowly from the ground. ''Or I won't be around when you do.''

He looked over his shoulder to her, but did not turn back around to face her.

She thought maybe she saw a flicker of remorse in his eyes at the implication of her words, but it was fleeting if it were there at all. He vanished the next moment, and she went to tend to Clint.

* * *

Author's Note: Loki is still Loki, after all. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review!


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Director Fury had a medical team waiting when they returned to Stark tower. They carted Clint out of sight, and the others waited outside of the medical ward until they were finished.

Banner returned shortly after Clint finished with surgery, and joined the others at the side of his hospital bed. Tony clapped his shoulder in greeting when he did, but the room was otherwise silent, with the exception of the steady beeping coming from Clint's heart monitor.

Natasha's hands were caked with dried blood as she squeezed Clint's, and he smiled meekly at her, still weakened from the surgery.

''Nat... Water,'' he rasped.

Tony disappeared for a few moments before returning to Natasha's side with a plastic cup. She lifted the straw to Clint's mouth and helped his drink from it until he was satiated.

After a while, one of the doctors made them leave so that Clint could rest, and they went their separate ways to clean up from the battle. After they'd scrubbed the blood and sweat from their bodies, they met back up in the living room at the top of the tower to talk.

''When will Clint recover fully?'' Bruce inquired, having missed the prognosis of the archer.

''Loki clipped his sternum, but besides that he only severed a few minor arteries,'' Natasha answered. ''Normally, it would take someone a few weeks to recover. But it's Clint.''

''Meaning?'' Bruce asked, requiring further explanation.

''He'll be up in the next day or so,'' Tony stated casually.

He stood up and approached the bar at the side of the room, taking four glasses from the shelf and filling them with an amber liquid. He returned with them all in hand, passing them around until each of them had a glass.

''Are you assuming Captain's role, as leader of the Avengers?'' Bruce asked him suddenly, timidly.

Tony looked to the others, waiting for objections, but Natasha only shrugged and Thor nodded his head once in agreement.

''I suppose I am,'' Tony said, eyeing the glass in his hand. He raised it to the air halfheartedly, and the others pressed their glasses to his. They drank to Tony as if in celebration, but in truth they were all bitter from the loss of their true leader.

* * *

They knew Loki would have to use the tower once again to implement his plan, and so they would wait and rest and regroup until he did.

Four days passed with no incident.

Clint was in one of the training rooms in the lower levels of the tower after only a day in the hospital, to prepare himself for the upcoming battle. Natasha trained with him every day, making sure he did not strain or push himself too far.

On the fifth day, they were all restless, and her and Clint went down to the training room to pass the time. They sparred for hours, trying to kill the extra adrenaline, and finally Clint bowed out, clutching his chest and excusing himself to rest.

Natasha stayed behind, having not reached the point yet where she could rest.

When Clint was gone, she kept replaying the conversations she'd had with Loki over in her head as she sparred with a punching bag. Clint had posted a print of Loki's face on the bag, and the longer she sparred, the more angry she got.

An especially vicious kick broke the chain and sent the bag tumbling to the floor. She watched it roll across the ground, and her whole body tensed when she saw a black boot bring the bag to a sudden stop.

Her gaze followed the boot up a long muscular leg, and over the sharp bones of the hips. Her eyes moved over the planes of the lean chest, and then past the broad shoulders to the handsome, striking face.

Loki glanced down at the bag at his feet, his mouth twitching slightly in distaste at his image there. He looked back up to Natasha, who was breathing hard and glaring at him from across the room.

''Are you in need of a partner?'' he asked. His hands moved up to remove his Asgardian coat, exposing the black shirt beneath with the tightly fitted leather armor around his gut and chest. He folded the coat in half and set it over a rack of weights, looking to her for her response.

''What are you doing here?'' she demanded, her fists tensed to fight.

''You did not answer me, little spider,'' he said, smirking. ''Or is that your answer?''

''The others know you are here, they will be here soon,'' she warned, her eyes flickering to the camera set up at the corner of the room. His eyes followed her gaze up, and his smirk grew to a smile.

''Mister Stark and the others will not interrupt us,'' Loki said surely. ''He is hoping you will take this opportunity to seduce me.''

Natasha's heartbeat leapt to her throat, knowing he was right.

''Cooperate with me, Agent Romanoff. I will kill Mister Rogers if you do not,'' he threatened, his face gone serious. He leaned his scepter against the same rack holding his coat, and crossed the room slowly to her. He stopped at the center and held up his hands, waiting for her to join him there.

''What do you get from this?'' She asked, her eyes narrowing as she crossed the room to him.

She did not wait for him to answer before throwing the first punch. He caught the blow in the palm of his hand, giving just enough to absorb the force of it.

''Have you not the answer for yourself?'' he inquired back. He caught the second punch in the same fashion and pushed her back a few paces.

''You want to humiliate me,'' she said, and he raised his eyebrows at her in surprise. ''To show you are stronger than me, that my skill can't hold up to your own and your brute strength.''

''I have already done so,'' he stated, a smirk flickering on his lips.

''But you need confirmation again, like a child,'' she sneered, and his smirk died instantly. ''You are the God of Mischief, of trickery and lies and manipulation. I have bested you too many times at your own game, and you have to compensate for it.''

While he was distracted by her words she advanced, and he barely came out of his stupor in time to block her punch. He deflected it off of his forearm, and caught the next in his fist.

''That answer was unprecedented,'' he admitted, his expression unpleasant.

''What did you expect me to say?'' she asked. She aimed a kick at his head and he deflected it easily. ''That you are here because you fancy me?''

He caught her leg when she attempted to strike him again and held her off balance, enjoying the flicker of discomfort on her face. ''And if I am here because I fancy you?''

She only glared at him in return for his words, her expression condescending.

He smiled at her. ''You would not be one to allow yourself to be manipulated in the same fashion that you manipulate others.''

He released her and she tumbled back, rolling up and onto her feet away from him. She advanced again, and he deflected her easily. ''Your heart is not in this exercise,'' he commented.

''You said I only had to cooperate,'' she returned. ''I am cooperating.''

''You are predictably stubborn, Agent Romanoff,'' he said, frowning. ''That is something I am not.''

''Stubborn?'' she asked, though it was rhetorical. She swung her leg towards his head, and he knocked it aside roughly. She hadn't been expecting the action and stumbled slightly, her momentum making her fall into his body.

His hands grabbed her roughly, not to catch her but to draw her closer. He stared down at her shocked face, his own drawn and serious and elegantly solemn.

''Predictable,'' he whispered, and pressed his mouth to hers.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Loki kept Natasha trapped against his body as he slipped his silver tongue into her mouth, holding her almost painfully tight as she thrashed against him. Her frustration reached its peak and finally spilled over, and she forfeited her struggling and returned his kiss with equal force.

His responding groan sounded almost a growl, and he spun her around and shoved her against the rack of weights nearest them. She grunted in pain, and he lifted her up to wrap her legs around his waist to put her at his height. He slipped his fingers into her hair, wrapping them around the back of her neck, his mouth bruising against hers.

Things progressed quickly from there.

It was vicious and rough and violent, and afterwards, Loki had to grasp the cold metal of the weight rack to keep himself standing, his body exhausted and sweat-drenched and spent. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to the cold metal, the feel of it striking in contrast to the heat radiating from Natasha's body still pressed against him.

He closed his eyes, feeling the rapid beating of her heart against his own and becoming memorized by the movement of her chest with each unsteady breath.

And then he heard it, just the slightest clinking of metal, and he barely moved in time to avoid the killing blow.

Instead of piercing his heart, the blade of his scepter sunk into the bone and meat of his shoulder, piercing all the way through and out his back.

His reflexes responded before he even felt the pain of it, pulling the scepter from his body and from Natasha, swinging it towards her with red in his eyes.

But he stopped dead when he saw her face, stoic except for her eyes, which were glazed with tears about to spill over.

The red faded as fast as it had come, and suddenly only pain was left. He hunched over, and his hand clutched at his shoulder as he hissed in pain. He felt himself weakening, and he fell to his knees on the padded floor.

He heard footsteps and voices approaching, and knowing he would not fair well in a fight in his current condition, he cast one last glance to Natasha before disappearing.

* * *

The others stormed into the room the next moment to find Natasha alone. She sank slowly to floor and stared at her bloody hands in her lap, not feeling the tears that made tracks down her face.

She did not react when Thor draped his cloak around her shoulders, the one least affected by her nakedness, and he wrapped it around her before lifting her up and taking her from the room. The others followed silently behind.

He took her to the living room and set her on the couch. He and Clint sat to either side of her, and Tony made her a cup of tea to calm her.

''You were very brave,'' Bruce said, and though it was meek it was sincere.

Tony held the cup to her, and she glared at him without taking it. ''You left me to die.''

''I took advantage of an opportunity,'' he corrected her, forcing her to take the steaming cup from him. He sat on the table in front of her, and held her free hand between his. ''You did the best you could. He was just too fast.''

''As I knew he would be,'' Natasha admitted, taking a timid drink of the tea.

Tony's eyebrows raised in surprise and he moved back slightly. ''But you tried anyway?''

''As I was told,'' she said.

Tony frowned at her, and bowed his head slightly.

''Loki is weakened,'' Thor rumbled. ''That is enough.''

''Weak for now,'' she corrected him. She stood, pulling the cape more securely closed around her. ''When he faces us again he will be strong, and now more angry than ever.''

She left them and escaped to her room, entering immediately the bathroom to turn the shower on to its hottest setting. She stepped beneath the steaming streams of water, hissing as the heat burned at her skin and turned it pink. She closed her eyes to the feel of it, wanting it to erase the memory of Loki's cold skin pressed against hers and what she had done.

She was not particularly fond of her skill set, but it was her own nonetheless. It got her what she wanted, and after she started playing for the good guys, it saved a lot of people at only her own expense. But good guys or bad, it was always at her own expense.

As she washed the blood from her hands she wondered what was on Loki's mind at that moment. Did he curse her for manipulating him? For taking advantage of him when he was at a man's weakest? Or did he know that not even she had known her own intentions, lost in their blatant act of passion?

She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. Even if it had been only instinct that plunged the blade of Loki's own scepter into his chest, and not her intention from the very beginning, it mattered not. There was really no going back from that point. It was not exactly a mistake one would make twice, falling into the Black Widow's web.

Natasha turned off the water and wrapped a towel around her body, stepping from behind the glass door and moving to stand before the clouded mirror. She used her hand to wipe clear a portion of it, and the face staring back at her surprised her.

Her eyes were weary and wet but not from the shower, and she could faintly make out the bruising on her mouth from Loki's vehement kisses. She was young and beautiful of course, but the look in her eyes spoke of ages she had yet to know.

The look frightened her. She'd been programmed long before to discard the feelings that resided after she used her specific skill set, and she was surprised now to see them written all over her face. She sighed heavily, silently, and turned away from the mirror.

* * *

''Perhaps you find me ignorant,'' Thor began, startling Natasha as he appeared in the kitchen behind her the next morning. She was alone in the room, having been unable to sleep, and had not heard him approach.

''Ignorant?'' she asked, turning slowly in her chair to look at him, her eyes tired and eyelids heavy.

''I know not the ways of you and my brother,'' he admitted. ''I understand the sharp edges of truth but not the twists and turns of lies.''

She waited silently for him to continue, knowing he was building to a point.

''I saw of your actions last night, Agent Romanoff. And they did not confuse me,'' he rumbled.

''What are you implying, Thor?'' she asked. But she knew the answer, and her hands clenched tightly into fists in her lap.

''Your feelings for my brother are sincere,'' he stated.

She didn't speak for a long time, just met the gaze of the god evenly as an array of emotions overcame her, though not a single one betraying on her face. Thor waited patiently for her words, and when she finally spoke, she looked away and to the floor.

''No, you are not ignorant.''

* * *

Author's Note: So... A lot happened in this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. This story took turns I had not planned (in a way that a story that has no plan tends to), but I hope you are liking them as much as I am. Please review!


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

A week passed, and still Natasha could not sleep. The first few nights, she would sit up in bed with her gun at her side and stare off into the darkness of her room, waiting for Loki to emerge to have his revenge.

She discovered on the third night that she was not the only one who could not sleep, when she found Thor sitting in the kitchen in the dark when she went to get a glass of water. She sat by his side for hours without either of them saying a word.

But when she found him there again the next night, she asked him about Asgard. Thor smiled wistfully as he spoke, recounting tales from long ago. More often than not, they would have Loki spun within, and she knew that he was on Thor's mind as much as her own, if not more.

''Loki was always causing trouble,'' Thor said with a chuckle, on the fifth night. ''It would get us into the most perilous of situations.'' His amusement faltered, and his face grew solemn. ''But we always found a way out of it... together.''

On the sixth day, they were joined by Clint, another victim to sleepless nights. By the week's end, Bruce and Tony had taken their places around the kitchen island as well, and they all listened intently to Thor's stories.

For the majority of it, Clint's face was twisted in disbelief, but he listened with no objection. Tony and Bruce, ever the intelligent men, drank every word that dropped from Thor's mouth, their thirst for knowledge a bottomless pit.

Natasha tuned out the others, letting herself drown in Thor's narrative, the stories playing out in her mind as if they were taking place right before her eyes. At first the stories were light and amusing and full of whimsy, as Thor spoke of his childhood and Loki's. But the tales grew darker the fresher the memory.

''I was to be made king,'' Thor was saying, his eyes lowered as he remembered. ''But just before my father could speak the final words, two Frost Giants made it into our world unnoticed to take the Casket of Ancient Winters, to return their world to its full glory.''

''How did they get inside?'' Clint asked.

''My brother,'' Thor answered. ''He had done so out of jealousy, to interrupt my coronation.''

''And then what happened?'' Tony asked, leaning forward across the counter, looking as enthralled as a child who stepped through the gates of Disneyland for the first time.

''I was naive,'' he admitted. ''Both to the true meaning of being a king, and to Loki's manipulations. I went to Jotunheim to make them pay for their actions, and ended up destroying the peace that my father had fought so hard to maintain.''

''Is that when Loki found out?'' Natasha asked softly.

''He knew then that he was not of Asgard, and after I had been banished powerless to the Earth, he approached my father about his true parentage,'' Thor stated, shaking his head to clear the dark memories. ''But what did it matter? Of Asgard or of Jotunheim, he was always my brother, as true as if we had been of the same blood.''

''It mattered because he never felt of the same blood,'' Natasha said, and the others looked at her. She looked up from the table to Thor, who was staring at her with wondering eyes. ''When he found out, it only confirmed everything he had ever feared.''

''Why is he angered so?'' Thor asked her. ''Why is he not sad as I am sad for him?''

''Because you are sad for him,'' she said carefully, her gaze falling to her hands in her lap. She remembered Loki's blood spilled there, and she swallowed a lump in her throat before continuing. ''Because you pity him. He feels like you are looking down to him, and that's why he strives so hard to prove himself your equal.''

''And because he is prideful,'' she continued, after a long moment of silence. ''He is the God of Mischief, yet Odin was the one to pull off the largest deceit he will ever know, and at his expense.''

''You know my brother's heart better than I,'' Thor admitted.

''Before I tried to stab him in it,'' she said quietly, more to herself than to anyone else. Thor did not say anything more, and after a while, they all made their way back to their rooms to try to sleep.

* * *

In the hall, Clint's hand on Natasha's arm stopped her, and he waited until all the others had gone to speak. ''You look like hell, Natasha.''

She moved her arm from his grip in annoyance and started back towards her room. He caught her hand and forced her to turn back around to face him. He reached up and traced the deep circles under her eyes with his fingertips.

''We are all tired,'' she said before he could make a comment.

''But yours is different,'' Clint said. ''Yours is more than tired.''

She didn't say anything, just moved her face away from his touch.

''Nat, you do things like this all the time. You did things worse than this for Russia.''

''Is that supposed to be comforting?'' she asked him dryly.

''What about this is bothering you so much?'' he asked. ''Loki is a liar, a murderer.''

''And what am I, Clint?'' she asked.

''Nat...'' he said weakly, and he reached out to touch her arm.

''My ledger...'' she shook her head, moving out of touch. ''I thought trying to kill Loki would clear some of the red from my ledger. But it just feels like I added more red.''

Clint said nothing. Natasha turned to leave, and he did nothing but watch her as she walked away.

* * *

Loki forced himself to sit still as the doctor changed the bandages on his shoulder. The man had been of the church congregation, and had proved himself useful when Loki had stumbled into their underground hideout bleeding and weakened and broken.

A week had passed, and Loki was finally reaching his full strength once again. Physically, at least.

He tried to be angry- and to an extent, he was. But whenever he thought back to the wretched woman stabbing his own scepter through his chest, he was often distracted by the events that took place before.

He thought back to the feel of her rough gasps against his lips, her warm body fitting to his like a missing puzzle piece, and he could not be angry. He fought an array of emotions, from sadness to disappointment to foolishness and back again. But mostly he was filled with a bitter regret, that their actions were not ones fated to be repeated.

When he was angry, it was at himself. For letting a mere mortal get under his skin. It made him feel weak, as he saw his brother for falling to such a thing himself.

And it was with that thought that Loki would have realized how he'd changed- how he had finally succeeded, how that little bit of humanity that she had instilled in him made him truly Thor's equal- had he taken the time to think about it. But as often, his pride was too strong to abandon the plan he had already invested in, and his thoughts moved to that instead.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

The next morning, the Avengers awoke to the sound of screaming.

Even high in the tower and tucked in their beds they could hear it, a chorus of voices ringing up from the surface streets. In a matter of seconds, the screams were followed by the sound of cars crashing and alarms blaring and more cries.

They suited up in seconds, before making their way outside. They rushed to the side of the building where the noise was the loudest and peered down to the chaos.

Below them, the asphalt was painted with blood.

The cars on the busy street were compacted together, crushed and smoking and leaking fuel. There were people ripping at each other in between, locked in vicious battles to the death, their eyes glowing brightly blue. There were people splayed out on the ground, and it was obvious from the pools of blood surrounding them that they would not ever get up again.

They found Loki almost immediately at the heart of it. He twisted and maneuvered through all the madness as smoothly as if he were dancing to a symphony. As he moved, his scepter found the hearts of those not yet under his spell, and soon they joined the fray. In a matter of seconds the mob had doubled.

Steve was nowhere yet to be found, nor Selvig and the machine.

Tony grabbed the back of Banner's jacket before taking off for the ground. Thor looped his arm around Natasha's waist and swung the hammer, casting them down with the others. Clint stayed back to watch over the tower and defend them from above.

Loki moved swiftly on top of the wreckage of a taxi, towering above them when they landed at its base.

''Brother, what is this madness?'' Thor rumbled over the noise, gesturing behind him at the crowds.

''What ever do you mean?'' Loki asked, and evil smirk lighting his face. ''I am but having myself a little fun.''

''Loki!'' Thor yelled, using the God of Mischief's name as a warning.

''Perhaps you should be a little less concerned with me, and more about your precious humans tearing each other apart around you,'' Loki taunted. ''You defeated my army of Chitauri, a little _crowd control_ should be no problem at all.''

But Loki knew the falseness of his words. He knew this presented much more of a challenge than the Chitauri. They could kill the Chitauri unabashed, but the humans were fragile and broken easily. They would use more effort being careful than making actual progress.

The Avengers were soon overtaken by the crowd, and Loki watched them struggle with blatant amusement.

Banner was having difficulty keeping the monster at bay, avoiding the fights that were sure to set him off and tending to the injured instead. Thor and Tony focused on breaking apart the fights, tossing the infected ones to Natasha, not trusting their strength not to hurt the people.

When they came to Natasha, she used pressure points to subdue them, even if it would not free them from Loki. She used more violent means with the ones that fought her.

Loki's amusement died when Thor grew frustrated and threw his hammer at him. Loki deflected it easily, and only Tony jumping in its path kept it from crashing through the crowd. Loki winced from the action, and his hand ghost over his shoulder.

''No weapons!'' Natasha yelled over the noise.

''Seconded,'' Tony growled as he recovered slowly.

The amount of civilians kept growing until it was nearly suffocating. With Loki perched innocently above the crowd, they knew the compromised S.H.I.E.L.D. agents must be around the edges of the chaos with the Tesseract-powered weapons recruiting anyone they could find.

Loki's eyes sought out each of the Avengers, which was growing more and more difficult as the minutes passed. His heart missed a beat when he realized that Natasha was gone.

* * *

At the edge of the chaos, Natasha split her legs and sunk to the ground to avoid being struck by one of the agents' weapons. She swung her legs around and knocked him off his feet the next moment, before leaping on him and slamming his head into the ground. The others around her advanced, and she was quick to disable them as well.

She made her way through them as quickly as possible, trying to stop the problem at its source.

A chorus of screams rang out near her location, and she saw a few agents rushing toward a group of people that had been running away from the scene. As she advanced toward them, she found her path blocked.

She barely stopped in time to avoid running into Loki's chest, and a sharp gasp escaped her lips in surprise.

''Loki...''

He closed his eyes for a moment as memories overcame him with the one word. Of her gasping his name, of her crying it out, her breath hot against his ear.

''Stop this,'' she said, and he opened his eyes again to look at her.

''It is too late for that,'' he said.

''What do you hope to accomplish from this?'' she demanded, looking around. ''What does this prove?''

''It proves, my darling,'' he began, his voice like silk.

As he spoke he turned her gently around to face the Stark tower, and he was a cool presence at her back. His hand moved aside the hair that covered her neck, and his mouth there was cold and sent shivers up her spine.

The breath in her ear cut like ice as he finished, ''A distraction.''

On top of the tower, she could barely make out Clint and Steve locked in battle, dangerously close to the edge of the building. At their backs, Selvig and a few others unloaded their machine and set it up at the tower's peak the same as before.

She watched in horror as the machine began to power up.

* * *

Natasha moved towards the tower, but Loki's gentle grip on her turned to iron. He pulled her in against his body, and she felt the blade of the scepter pressed to her back.

''Shall I do to you what you did to me?'' he asked her darkly. ''An eye for an eye.''

''Loki-'' she began, but his hand moved to her throat and cut her words short.

''Whatever appeal you could make would fall on deaf ears,'' he said to her.

Loki barely moved his head back in time to avoid her own cracking against his, but she grazed him hard enough to get him off of his guard. She twisted from his hands the next moment, rolling away and onto her feet to put distance between them.

Loki twisted his scepter in his hand, watching her breath accelerate in response to the action with amusement. Just as he lifted the scepter to strike out at her, he turned instead to defend himself against Tony, who flew up behind him and sent blasts of power towards him.

Loki dodged them easily enough, but it put enough space between him and Natasha for Tony to safely make away with her. They left Loki there on the street, and soared towards the tower to stop Selvig from using the machine.

Tony dropped her right above Steve, and she immediately cut short his battle with Clint when the impact of her body sent them both tumbling to the ground. He turned on her instead, and Clint and Tony struggled to fight their way up to the machine.

Thor joined them a few moments later, but when he went to aid them in their battles, he found his brother in his path.

They locked in a battle that seemed to stretch on for hours. It was brutal and vicious as the brothers drew blood and spilled it across the ground. To anyone that may have been watching, in awe of the power of the two gods as they fought one another, it would be clear that this would be their last battle.

Thor struck his brother, casting him to the ground. ''Brother, stop this!''

Loki raised his hand to his lip and wiped the blood there away, his striking eyes looking up to Thor. ''You repeat yourself as the sirens do, begging men to join them in the sea. Has that appeal ever worked on me before?'' he sneered, and swung his scepter to knock Thor's legs from under him.

Thor tumbled to the ground and Loki advanced, only to be struck away by Thor's hammer. He skidded to a halt a few feet away, and they met again with a clash of their weapons, glaring at each other over them.

''Do you wish me dead?"' Thor asked, his next blow vicious despite the pain in his voice.

Loki recovered quickly, and his eyes were narrowed in disgust. He forced Thor back, and Thor stayed, catching his breath. ''I've told you what I want, _Odinson_.'' He cast his eyes upward, gesturing towards the sky.

''You hear me now, father?'' he yelled to the sky. To some perhaps he would have looked mad, but Thor knew as well as he that their father would be with Heimdall, watching down at them now to see the outcome of this battle. ''I will not be in Thor's shadow any longer. I will prove that I am not second best, as you raised me to be. That I am not some trophy of war for you to set on a shelf with the others, or a pawn for you to play. I am _not_ Laufeyson.''

He looked back to Thor, who was watching him with pain on his face.

''I am Odinson,'' Loki said defiantly, twisting the scepter in his hand before using it to blast Thor back.

When the smoke finally cleared from the blast, Thor stood on his feet with his head looking down to the ground, his legs unsteady beneath him. Loki stayed back, waiting with a satisfied smirk on his face, for the moment he'd so long anticipated.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

In a few very short moments, three significant events happened one right after the other.

Firstly, Tony and Clint failed to breach the barrier of agents and get to Selvig in time to stop the machine. A burst of blue light fired from it, straight towards the sky.

Secondly, Steve had overpowered Natasha and held her head between his hands, tensed to twist it and snap her neck. Natasha's eyes were wide and frightened, her lasts breaths coming out raggedly as she failed to free herself from Steve's hands.

And thirdly, finally, Thor collapsed to his knees before Loki, beaten and bloody and broken.

* * *

There before Loki, he'd gotten all he'd ever wanted.

The Avengers had failed to stop him. The blue light coming from the machine would reach the satellite above them in space at any moment, and it would transfer the power of the Tesseract to every device utilizing it and corrupt the humans within their reach.

Thor had fallen to him. That was most important. He'd beaten his brother and in at least the eyes of Heimdall and Odin, who were no doubt looking down at them at that very moment, proved himself Thor's equal.

But as he stood looking down at his brother, scepter in hand poised to strike if Thor were to stand again, he was surprised at how empty his victory felt. The satisfied smile that had previously played on his lips slowly faded away.

Loki's hand faltered when he heard a cry across the way, knowing the voice now like the back of his hand. He glanced away from Thor, to the source of the sound, and his eyes widened in horror.

What happened next came as a surprise to them all, even to Loki himself.

''Stop!'' he screamed, letting the scepter drop from his hand as he fell to his knee.

Everyone froze, including Steve, who had been a millisecond away from snapping Natasha's neck. His hands fell away and Natasha collapsed onto the ground, her eyes still wide and frightened.

Thor stumbled forward and snatched up the scepter, and Loki did not even move to stop him. He tossed the scepter up to Clint's awaiting hand, and he and Tony made it past the last few agents to plunge the scepter into the center of the machine. The blue light died instantly.

* * *

They weren't in the clear yet. Those already compromised by Loki still needed to be taken care of, including Steve.

Tony sent a blast of power at Steve and knocked him back from Natasha. He pulled her up from the ground, and he and Thor carted her and Clint back down to help Bruce with the people on the street. Just before they disappeared over the ledge, Natasha cast a glance back towards Loki, who had turned his back to them.

Loki recovered his scepter from where it had been abandoned by the machine, and he sat on the ledge and watched the Avengers below.

He realized then that he had never thought his actions through, or not in their entirety. He never thought his brother would fall to his knees before him, or that he could truly rule Midgard. And that short moment that he had held the latter in his hands, he'd realized that he hadn't truly wanted to.

He'd gotten what he truly wanted, to be Thor's equal. Though he realized now that it had not come from his victory today, but from the changes that Natasha had made in him. He would not admit aloud that she had softened his heart, given him the edge that Thor had possessed after his time on Earth that he himself had been missing.

He did not react when he heard his brother approach him at his back a few hours later, when the streets were clear below and everyone was safe once again.

Thor was silent for a long time, and Loki waited patiently for him to speak.

Loki heard the gravel move beneath Thor as he shifted his weight. ''Do you understand now?'' he rumbled.

Loki lowered his head, staring down at the scepter in his lap. He nodded slowly in response.

Then he was suddenly pulled back and off of the ledge, and he tensed immediately before he realized Thor's intent. Thor pulled him in close and pressed his forehead to Loki's, meeting his gaze with tears in his eyes.

Loki felt tears burn at his own, and lowered his gaze to the ground, the arm with his scepter limp at his side.

''It is about time, brother,'' Thor said, his hand tightening around the back of Loki's neck for emphasis.

Loki's hands gripped at his brother when his strength failed him. Thor had been badly injured from their battle, and Loki supported him.

''I know not what happens now, brother,'' Loki said, bowing his head slightly.

''We make amends,'' Thor answered. ''And then we return home.''

* * *

Steve sat on the couch in the living room with a bag of ice to his head, and the others were scattered throughout the room as well. They were all tired, but most could muster enough energy to be angry when Loki walked into the room with Thor.

Clint's outbursts were the loudest, but he was silenced with only a look from Thor. Tony and Bruce were skeptical, but they were more reserved with their anger. If Steve was angry he did not show it, and he remained silent throughout all that Loki had to say.

When Thor and Loki turned to Natasha for her reaction, she just turned her back to leave the room.

Thor moved to speak but Loki held up a hand to stop him. He helped Thor sit down, leaving him to Bruce, who immediately came over to help him with his injuries. They all watched Loki out of the corners of their eyes when he went after Natasha.

He grabbed her arm forcibly to stop her, and she had a gun pressed to his stomach the next moment.

''You're injured,'' she stated. ''I can hurt you.''

''You have already tried to stab me through the heart,'' he reminded her, narrowing his eyes down at her. When she did not remove the gun, he pulled her closer. ''Do your worst.''

''You killed hundreds of people,'' she said. ''S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, civilians...''

''Then what stills your hand?'' he challenged, tightening his grip on her. He ignored the others when he heard their angry outbursts from behind him.

''You saved me,'' she said. ''You would have succeeded, but you saved me instead.''

''Regimes fall all the time, I tend not to weep over it,'' he reminded her, repeating the words she had spoken to him on the helicarrier after he had inquired why she would put everything on the line for only Clint.

Her eyes were widened slightly in surprise as she gazed up at him, but it mattered little when he could no longer see them, his mouth pressed to hers.

His breath was cool across her face as he sighed against her mouth. Despite the aggression that had come before the kiss, it was as gentle and soft as it had been the nights he had come to her room and they had opened their hearts to one another.

''Anyone else confused by all of this?'' Tony inquired behind them, trying to break the tension of the moment. Every hand went up but Thor's, and they all turned their attention away, letting the two have their moment.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next will be the last. Which bugs me, because I have this ungodly hatred for odd numbers because of my OCD. But that's how it worked out. I hope I do the ending justice. Please review!


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

Loki woke beside Natasha with the sheets tangled around both of their bodies. She was already awake, staring up at the ceiling with a strange expression on her face. But he knew her feelings well, for he shared them, and he leaned over to press a soft kiss to her temple.

The kiss pulled her from her thoughts, and she twisted in the sheets to face him. He drew her in to him gently, relishing in the gasp that escaped her lips as she came back into contact with his cold skin. His fingers were soft when they wove into her hair, and her breath was warm against his face before he claimed her mouth with his own.

The kiss grew from something gentle to something vicious. And their bodies joined feverishly for one last time just before the sun broke over the skyline.

They did not speak afterwards, dreading the words that were soon to come. They just laid on their backs besides one another, their bodies glazed with sweat and chests slowing.

It was only a short while later that Thor came for them. They dressed slowly, still in silence, before joining the others out on the roof.

* * *

Thor was waiting with a contraption in his hand, the Tesseract contained within, the same that they had used before to transport them back to Asgard. Jane was at his side, her hand clasped tightly in his free one, and the others were gathered around to say their goodbyes as well.

If any had doubted they were brothers, they would have known their mistake when they saw Thor and Loki both look down to the women at their sides, the same expression on their faces.

It spoke of the years they had lived, too similar to belong to those who had not lived those years along with them. It was that of one who had seen many incredible things throughout the years, but none of which meant anything compared to the person standing beside them.

Natasha looked up to meet Loki's gaze, and though they had not spoken, there was a mutual understanding of what would come to pass.

Natasha did not ask Loki to stay. She knew his heart longed for Asgard, for his home. He had not fought so hard to secure his rightful place there just to throw it away so easily. And she would never ask him to.

Loki did not ask Natasha to come with him either, or to change her ways. He did not expect her to spend her nights pining for him, and he did not want her to. And he could not ask her to leave her home. Not yet, anyway.

''What will happen when you get to Asgard?" Natasha asked.

''I know not,'' he answered her.

She lowered her head, and they remained silent for a few moments.

''Will I see you again?'' she asked him, raising her face to meet his gaze again. He was not met with pitiful eyes, or even sad ones to go along with the question. Her face was set, wanting an honest answer from him and not for her feelings to be spared.

Instead of answering her right away, he leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips.

Tony whistled impatiently behind them, wanting to round up the Asgardians so that they could be on their way.

Loki smiled and moved away from Natasha, towards where Thor was waiting for him. She stared after him, stubbornly refusing to call after him for an answer.

Halfway between her and Thor, he turned back around to face her, the smile still playing at his lips.

''My time here in Midgard is done, but yours is not, my darling. There will come a day when you have cleaned the red from your ledger,'' he stated.

He turned his back to her again as he joined his brother, placing his hand on the device that would take them home when Thor held it out to him. But just before he twisted the handle that would take them away, he looked back to her.

''And when you do, I will come back for you.''

With the twist of his wrist and a flash of light, they were gone.

* * *

Loki braced himself to be seized upon sight when he and Thor arrived in Asgard, but to his surprise, no hands came for him.

Instead, they found themselves before all of the Asgardian court, with Odin and Freya at the center. Sif and the Warriors Three stood at the right of the king and queen, and Heimdall at their left, the rest of the court crowded at each side and parted for the brothers to approach.

A guard retrieved the Tesseract from them and disappeared, and with a glance shared between the brothers, they made their way toward their parents. When they were near enough, they went to a knee before Odin, their heads bowed low.

''Thor,'' Odin began, and Thor raised his head to his name. ''My son. You have lived up to your station as Guardian of Midgard, and will be commemorated for your actions in battle. You may stand.''

Thor cast a concerned glance to Loki, whose head was still bowed toward the floor, and did as he was instructed, taking his position between Odin and Heimdall.

''Loki,'' Odin began again, and the God of Mischief raised his head slowly. ''Your actions on Midgard were abominable. You killed hundreds of innocents, and left nothing but blood in your wake. And for the second time, proven yourself not worthy of the Odinson name.''

Loki's head fell again.

''And had you stood before me as you had the last time you were here, stubborn and arrogant and failing to see the shameful nature of your actions, I would be in my every right to have you put to death.''

There were gasps in the crowd, and Loki closed his eyes tight as the words echoed in the grand hall, taunting him. He heard Thor's armor rustle as he moved to object, but when it silenced Loki knew Heimdall had stopped him.

''However,'' Odin added, and Loki raised his head in surprise. ''From what I witnessed as I watched your final moments in battle in Midgard, you showed me many things to be true that were not true before.''

''You not only proved to me that you are a formidable opponent, even for one of the strongest warriors that Asgard has ever seen, but you also showed the humanity that a king needs in order to lead his people. Your acquisition of these traits, despite your means, have led me to a different decision in regard to your fate.''

The tension was thick in the air, and every body was tensed as they awaited their king's decision. Loki's breath was caught in his throat, trying to keep his face neutral as he gazed up at the man who had raised him.

''Had I only one son, the fate of the throne would be of no question. But as I have found myself with two worthy men to lead my people when I no longer can, the same can not be said to be true.''

Loki's brow furrowed in confusion, and he was not the only one. The crowd broke out in hushed voices and whispers, and only Heimdall was unaffected by Odin's words, as he knew all.

''Silence!'' Odin commanded, and the echo of his voice was the only sound to move through the room the next moment.

Odin reached back and took Thor's arm, motioning for him to rejoin his brother before him. Thor took a knee, sharing a look with Loki before they both returned their gazes to their father. Neither of them missed the slight glaze of tears in Odin's eyes when he spoke next, or the way his voice wavered with emotion.

''For the first time in Asgardian history...'' Odin rumbled. ''There will be two kings.''

While everyone around them erupted in cheers, Loki and Thor looked to each other with wide eyes. Thor was the first to react, pulling his brother into an embrace with the happiest of expressions on his face. Loki did not react, frozen in shock, and still his gaze was on his father, who was looking down to them both.

''There is one condition, Loki, my son,'' Odin said. It was only for the ears of those closest, as no one besides them were paying attention any further to listen, and it was too loud in the great hall to be overheard.

Loki and Thor both pulled themselves up from the floor and looked to their father, waiting for him to continue.

''You are never to return to Midgard,'' Odin commanded.

Loki's face fell, and then slightly his head. Thoughts of Natasha flashed through his mind... her beauty, her cleverness, the fire hair that matched her so well.

''I understand, father.''

Thor put his hand on Loki's shoulder to comfort him, his face grave. Odin stepped down from his station, and Freya and Heimdall followed. As Odin passed, he put his hand on Loki's opposite shoulder.

''Except to keep your word to the Midgardian, of course,'' he added in Loki's ear, and he chuckled softly as he and the others crossed the grand hall to leave. Loki's grin was wide and instant, despite his father's playfully malicious intention to scare him that he would not see the woman again.

Thor's laughter rumbled at his side. ''He really pulled one over on you.''

Loki's grin faded into a look of skepticism when it turned to his brother. ''' 'Pulled one over on you'? You are the one that should be banned from Midgard. Your intelligence is digressing with their foul use of language.''

Thor ignored his brother's insult, happy instead that they were back to teasing each other once again, as they had when they were children. The difference being that it would not always be at Loki's expense, as now in everyone's eyes, they were equals.

Life for them returned to normal on Asgard. The only change was a newly found respect for Loki that had been lacking before, though there was some opposition to Odin's decision.

Loki did not give up his mischief, as he had not abandoned his true nature completely, and no one had expected him to. It was always just enough to get him and Thor into the worst of situations without risk of losing his stature as heir to the throne, and he was happy despite the limitations.

He and Thor visited Heimdall often at first, to see down to Midgard and their loves, but Loki gradually went less over time. Where Jane was safe in her laboratory, Natasha was constantly pushing the limits of her humanity, and the worry was a torture Loki could do without. He did not need constant confirmation that her heart belonged to him, as his belonged to her.

He would know when she was ready, and he would go to her.

* * *

Author's Note: The end. I hope you enjoyed it. I am pretty happy with how I ended it, I just hope I was able to get what I wanted to across well enough. Please review. And thank you all for reading!


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Avengers or any of its associations.

* * *

I hope I did not get any hopes up with this posting, but perhaps I will make up for it by what I have to say next.

I have decided to write another story, but I need some help deciding what to do. I have two options, and I would love for some feedback from those of you that have followed this story in order to help me decide.

The first option is that I write a sequel to this story.

The second option is that I write a new story altogether.

Please review with which you would like to see more. I already have ideas for both, but they are too similar for me to write two separate stories. Personally, I am leaning more towards the second option (only because writing the road to them falling in love is so much fun).

I also want to know whether or not I should up the rating and add a little more... maturity, to the story. So if you end up reviewing with which option you would like to see me execute, please include an opinion on that as well.

Hope to hear from you so I can get started ^_^.


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